


The Second Wave

by Chichirinoda



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Heist, M/M, Power Suppression, Semi-Public Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-12 07:35:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 38,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7092430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chichirinoda/pseuds/Chichirinoda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When someone breaks into STAR Labs and steals an important component of the particle accelerator, Team Flash can't exactly go to the CCPD and report a robbery. Unfortunately, their new foe is more than capable of handling the Flash, and Barry can think of only one person with the skills he needs to get his property back.</p><p>But Leonard Snart already <i>has</i> everything that he needs from Barry, so what is he going to ask for in return?</p><p>Edit 07/17/16: I've removed the Coercive Sex tag, as I don't feel it really fits! If you were uncertain about reading because of that, I hope you give the story a chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheFightingBull](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFightingBull/gifts).



> Go [here](http://www.mtslash.org/thread-205552-1-1.html) to read the story in Chinese!

Barry Allen had a routine. Get up in the morning - as late as possible. Speed through getting ready. Stop at Jitters for his morning cup of joe to help him through the day. Get to work - just on time. Work an eight hour shift, running tests and writing reports. Then he’d speed to STAR Labs, switch gears, and usually speed through the city until well into the night, fighting crime.

Of course, that routine got disrupted on a nearly constant basis. Sometimes crime happened during the day and Barry was in a position to stop it rather than just document the unfortunate results afterwards. Sometimes work called him in late at night for an extra shift if something couldn’t wait. Sometimes, there was testing and training his speed in the evening, when crime rates were fairly low. 

Sometimes massive holes opened up in the fabric of spacetime and that became the priority. Stuff like that.

Today, he had barely arrived at work when he saw Cisco’s name pop up on the speed dial of his cellphone, and he knew immediately that his routine was probably going to be messed up again, today.

He hurried - at normal human speed - up the stairs to his lab as he tapped the green button and brought the phone up to his ear. “Hey, Cisco, what’s up?”

“Hey buddy? Er, no need to panic.” Cisco sounded very careful, as if he was about to break something bad to him. Like cancer. Or that Eobard Thawne had returned.

Barry shut the door to his office, already feeling his heart rate increase. “Okay, Cisco? See, if you tell me not to panic for no reason, that makes me panic. What happened?”

“Um, so the lab is sort of…trashed.”

Barry went cold. “Trashed?”

The phone switched to speaker, and Barry heard Caitlin shouting from what sounded like the other side of the room. _She_ sounded like she was panicking slightly. “Barry, someone broke in last night. A lot of the equipment was damaged, and some of it’s missing. The security tapes have been erased.”

Barry leaned against the door and tilted his head back, his eyes closing. “Oh, _shit_. What did they take? Anything about, uh, the Flash?”

Of course they had to have been after data about him. But what really made him nervous was whether or not there was any data that might allow someone to trace the Flash back to Barry Allen. Was that possible? They had been hacked once before - by Hartley Rathaway. It didn’t seem as though Hartley had learned his real identity, but that didn’t mean that the information didn’t exist somewhere on the STAR Labs computers, if someone looked hard enough.

But even setting his secret identity aside, Barry had been undergoing tests for over a year at STAR Labs. The sheer amount of data about his capabilities that was stored on the computers was staggering, and much of it could be used to find and exploit his weaknesses.

Barry was already going through mental lists of who might have the ability and motivation to do this. There were quite a few dangerous metahumans topping that list, especially after Leonard Snart had betrayed him at Ferris Air a couple of months ago and let everyone out of the pipeline.

There was also General Eiling, of course. The military might have been able to pull something like this off, though breaking and entering didn’t really seem like his style. Eiling would more likely start by going through legal channels first to force Barry to give up the data, before going to this length.

He shook himself, realizing that his thoughts were racing away from him with the power of the speed force, and that any moment his friends were going to catch up and answer his question.

Indeed, at first when Caitlin started to speak, it was so slow that he had to consciously rein himself in and slow down before he could understand her. “We’re still cataloging the damage and assessing what was taken,” she said.

“Yeah, we’re making a list,” Cisco put in. “I have paper and everything.”

“We just got here ourselves and found out,” Caitlin added. “We called Professor Stein, too, and he’s on his way over to help.”

“Don’t wear Professor Stein out,” Barry warned. He was still having health troubles after Ronnie’s death, and wasn’t spending much time at the lab these days.

“I wouldn’t let that happen,” Caitlin exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, Barry,” Cisco chimed in. “We’ll finish all this and fill you in on the damage when you get here tonight.”

“Wait, wait, hang on.” Barry was already striding across the room to pack up his CSI kit. “I should come there and see if I can find any evidence of who did this, before you move too much. They might’ve left fingerprints or trace evidence.”

“I don’t really think that we want to report this to the police, Barry,” Caitlin said weakly. 

Barry wasn’t surprised that Cisco and Caitlin didn’t want the police involved, and he agreed. Though it was definitely a crime, the last thing they wanted to do was have the police come in and crawl all over STAR Labs looking for clues. Maybe doing it themselves wasn’t the best way to deal with things, but they also couldn’t risk the police taking anything away with them as part of the investigation. Their only choice was to handle it, well, internally.

“No, no, I know,” he said hastily. “I was just thinking I’d come and do it myself.”

“Good idea,” Cisco said. “When do you think you can get here?”

“I’ll just make some excuse and be over soon.” Barry tapped the ‘end call’ button. He finished packing up his kit and slung it over his shoulder, then made his way downstairs towards Captain Singh’s office. 

On his way, he ran into Joe, who was on his way from the break room to his own office. “Hey Barry,” his adoptive father said, brows rising in surprise when he saw him. “Where’re you headed? Is there a case?”

“Ah…no.” Barry’s voice lowered and he leaned in close. “There was a break-in at STAR Labs last night. I want to head over there and help figure out what got taken, see if the perpetrators left any prints or evidence behind.”

Joe’s eyes widened? “What? I didn’t hear about this.”

Barry flushed. “We ah… haven’t reported it, officially.” 

Joe’s eyes flicked towards the Captain’s office door. “You want me to cover for you?”

Barry hesitated. “I’m probably going to be gone a while… You sure?”

Joe clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Be fine. I’ll call you if something happens. And let me know if you all need a hand with anything.”

Barry sagged slightly, and smiled appreciatively up at Joe. He really was fortunate that, other than worrying for Barry’s safety and that of their family and friends, his detective father had accepted his role as a vigilante so well. “Yeah, yeah that’d be great. Thanks, Joe. I’m sure Caitlin and Cisco can use all the help they can get.”

“I’ll head over there when I finish my shift, then,” Joe said with a grin. “Go on, son.”

Barry beamed, and then headed for the door. In a blink, he was speeding towards STAR Labs.

~ ~ ~

Outside, everything looked fine, except that the lock at the front door had been damaged. Inside, the sight took Barry’s breath away. ‘Trashed’ was an appropriate word for what the jerks had done.

The main computer station had been tossed, with drawers pulled out and the contents spilled across the floor. The monitors had been thrown onto the floor and Barry could immediately see that the computer towers had been pulled out and dismantled. Probably, they had taken the hard drives.

Caitlin was almost tearful about the damage that had been done, and gave him a hug the moment he arrived. Cisco muttered something about off-site backups taking them to last Friday, but that still meant a few days of work were lost, and it would cost a lot to replace everything. 

Barry got to work immediately, starting with the computer station so Cisco and Caitlin could get back to cleaning up as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, he had learned long ago that trying to dust for prints at super-speed tended to cause a mess. After an agonizing hour of careful work, he still hadn’t found any prints. Smudges suggested that they might have been wearing gloves. 

Stein arrived at that point, and looked like he might be suppressing an actual swear word when he beheld the damage. He suggested to Cisco that he go and try to find replacement equipment, so they could get up and running once again, and Cisco gratefully headed out with the company card to purchase some hard drives. Thankfully, STAR Labs did still have some operating capital, mostly from active patents that Wells - well, Eobard - had developed and bequeathed to the company itself.

CSI work was meticulous and fiddly, and often took a long time. It took Barry three hours to be certain that there was no evidence in the main lab to collect. He dusted the main door and elevator with growing certainty that they never would find anything. Frankly, if they came covered in masks and gloves, the chances of them leaving a hair or fingerprint behind were small. And since the security tapes were all taken along with everything else, nothing in STAR Labs was going to yield any results.

He was pondering whether it’d be possible to get access to the traffic cameras around the area, or if he’d have to wait for Cisco to get his new equipment up and running and hack them, when he discovered another locked door that was standing open.

It was the door down to the pipeline.

The heavy steel door had been forced, just like the front door, and the metal was even bent around the lock and crash plate, which looked like it had been peeled back by a crowbar. Barry stood in front of it, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Sure, there weren’t any superpowered criminals down there anymore, but there sure was a lot of very expensive and proprietary equipment. Some of it was damaged, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t potentially dangerous.

“Hey guys!” he called. “I don’t think they were only after hard drives.”

Caitlin hurried over, followed almost immediately by Stein, who brought a hand to his mouth at the sight of the buckled door. “My word, this is more serious than I thought. We shall have to go down there immediately and determine the extent of the damage.”

Barry’s phone began to ring, and he stepped back, waving the other two down into the bowels of the building as he took the call.

“Hey Barry, how are things going?” Joe asked, his voice tense on the other end of the line.

“Not great,” Barry sighed. “I don’t have a single clue so far, and we just found out that they might have been after more than just the research. They got into the pipeline.”

“Bummer. Well, I’m afraid you’re gonna have to take a few minutes for your other job, Bear. A body’s been found down by the harbour. Can you be there?”

Barry nodded. There wasn’t much more he could do here anyway. “Yeah, I can come. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” At least he already had his kit, so he wouldn’t need to stop off at the station.

He hurried down into the pipeline to let Caitlin know he’d be heading off for a while. Apparently, Central City’s criminals really didn’t want him to catch a break today.

~ ~ ~

Barry met up with Joe at the road, near to the bus stop, so people would think he’d taken a bus instead of just running here. It was a thoroughfare that ran past a patch of parkland that abutted the water. Barry remembered this spot pretty well - he had run along this beach at top speed, trying desperately to stop a massive tidal wave from destroying Central City.

He’d also had picnics here as a kid many times, sitting on a blanket with Joe and Iris, and watching the joggers. There were often food trucks parked along the street, and people playing frisbee or doing yoga. 

Right now, the park was all but deserted, police tape strung along the trees. A small crowd clustered on the sidewalk at the edge of the tape, a police officer stationed to keep them from getting any closer. A knot of very unhappy-looking people stood to one side, being interviewed by the police. Barry assumed they were the ones who had found the body. 

“How’s STAR Labs?” Joe asked in an undertone.

“We think they might have wanted to steal particle accelerator technology,” Barry said. “They took the hard drives and went into the pipeline, too. So it might not just be about the Flash.”

“Damn. You think someone wants to make another particle accelerator?” The horror in Joe’s voice was real. 

“That’d be pretty stupid… I don’t know, Joe. We don’t even know for sure if they took anything other than the hard drives yet, so I guess we’ll see.” 

Joe nodded, and ducked under the tape. “Well, I’m sorry to pull you away, but this came up and you were needed.”

“That’s okay, Joe. What’ve we got?” Barry asked, hitching the strap on his kit higher on his shoulder after ducking under the tape to follow his father towards the water.

“Body washed up this morning. It’s pretty fresh…and pretty weird. You’ll see.” Joe led him down to the water, where a cluster of people were taking pictures and searching the ground for clues. In the centre of the widening circle, was what looked like a pile of rags from a distance, but Barry saw a hand sticking out as he got closer, and it soon resolved into the sprawled figure of a woman.

He paused by the body, just looking down at her first. Her hair was tangled around her face, long and black and curly. Her clothing was rough, a pair of ripped jeans showing dark knees, and a t-shirt that had seen better days and a lot of washes, but not recently. 

The side of her face had erupted, four-inch spines like porcupine quills protruding from her left cheek and forehead. The deformity continued down her neck and side, the t-shirt ripped where the spines had come through. The ones coming from her side and arm were thicker spikes, some as much as in inch around.

“Huh…She’s a metahuman, but like… not like anything I’ve seen before,” Barry said. He set his kit down, pulled on some gloves and got to work. He waited while the photographer got a few more shots of her torso, then carefully cut the t-shirt away from one of the spines so he could see better. The flesh was raw and bloody, though the tissues were white from blood loss and being submerged in the water. 

“I think this just happened to her recently,” he said. “I guess we’ll see what the medical examiner says.” 

“You mean, you think this girl just became a metahuman recently?” Joe asked, startled.

“Well, no,” Barry said, shaking his head. “I mean, that’s impossible. But maybe she’s a shapeshifter. Or maybe she’s not a normal metahuman and something happened to her that made her mutate. These spikes just came _out_ of her recently - and violently, too.”

He picked up her right hand - which seemed completely human, compared to her left - and began to sample under her fingernails. Then he noticed something. “Hey Joe? Look.” He held up her hand higher. Her arm was reddened, her skin abraded away in a circlet around her wrist. “Ligature marks.” 

He moved down to her feet, which were bare, and checked her ankles. The marks were there, too, but there was also a bit of waterlogged rope tied around one ankle. He examined the end of the rope, which was deeply frayed. Barry’s brows furrowed and he got a chill. This was all coming together.

He rose to his feet and looked at his father, who gazed down at the body with a serious expression. “She was bound, Joe. This woman can’t have been dead more than three or four hours, she’s not even completed going into rigor mortis, yet. She was kidnapped at some point, then killed this morning and dumped in the harbour. It looks from the colour that those abrasions happened before she died. I bet they tried to weigh her down with something, and the rope broke, so she floated to the surface.”

Joe nodded, a muscle tightening in his jaw. “Finish up. I want to get her down to the morgue for the autopsy so we can figure out how she was killed.”

“I don’t see any obvious wounds,” Barry said, nodding and bending once again to finish his examination. “Could be poison, maybe.”

“Maybe,” Joe said. “But I don’t think poison caused her to turn into a hedgehog.”

“Me neither,” Barry said.

He finished gathering and labelling his samples, and was halfway through packing up his kit to head back to the station to begin testing - there was no point in going back to STAR Labs, as he was sure there was no more evidence to gather there - when Barry’s phone rang. Cisco again.

“Hey,” he said, catching the phone between his shoulder and ear so he could finish. “I’m just finishing up here. Did you find anything else?”

“Yeah,” Cisco said. His voice was uncharacteristically serious. “The main control unit for the particle accelerator’s been stolen, Barry. It’s what emits the particles and generates the radiation.” He drew a breath and let it out. “Barry, we think someone might be trying to recreate the particle accelerator explosion.”

Barry’s whole body went cold, as if he’d had a bucket of ice water dumped over his head. He rose to his feet and looked down at the dead woman lying by the water. At the partial mutation, mutilating her body. “Cisco… I think someone might have already tried.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AO3 borked when I posted this story so two copies of the story went up. If you read the other copy of chapter 1, and are confused why a comment or kudo disappeared, that's why. Sorry!


	2. Chapter 2

As he stood there with his phone to his ear, in the middle of a crime scene, Barry didn’t dare say much more than that. Cisco choked and sputtered, obviously needing an explanation, but even the word ‘particle accelerator’ was likely to attract too much attention from all the people around him. The longer he was here on the phone, the greater the delay before the moment when they could find the bad guys. Cisco recognized that as well.

“Well… I’ll let you get back to it, buddy,” he said, his voice already sounding distracted. “I’m going to— you know? I might be able to calibrate… particle accelerator radiation signatures, I bet I could track…” He was already sliding into his own world.

“Yeah, Cisco, I’ll get back to the lab as soon as I can.”

“Okay! I’ll have something for you by the time you get here. Uh, if I can get the new drives installed real fast, anyway.”

They disconnected and Barry slipped his phone back into his pocket. He wanted to go straight to STAR Labs, but he knew he couldn’t abandon this job, either. Besides, he was certain they were connected.

So he finished packing up his kit, and rode with Joe in the police car back to the station. 

He sped through cataloging the samples, and set up a number of tests to run for a couple of hours. Any normal person couldn’t have done all that in less than several hours, but Barry managed it in about one. The written reports would take longer, even with super-fast typing, but most of those could wait until the following day. Finally, he had done what he absolutely needed to do as to not hold up the investigation, and he stood back, eyes flicking over his desk to take it all in. The centrifuge whirred and the autoclave buzzed.

Barry decided that the rest could wait. Anyway, it was nearly quitting time as it was.

So he collected a few things he would need, and zipped back to STAR Labs to see what progress Cisco and the others had made.

He found Cisco, Stein, and Caitlin working frantically at temporary work stations set up in the middle of the chaos. Stein was saying something about “ambient radiation” and “I’m not sure it’s going to be possible to boost the receiver without getting too much interference.”

“Hey guys,” Barry said. “What’ve you got? Here, Caitlin, this is for you. Report on the dead metahuman we found today - can you figure out anything the medical examiner might have missed?” 

Barry had made a copy of the ME’s initial findings and this he handed it over to her now. She flipped through the pages quickly, eyes narrowed with thought.

“Oh man, we are so boned,” Cisco groaned. “Are we boned? I think we might be just a bit boned.”

“My dear boy, we are not ‘boned’,” Stein said, folding his arms. “We simply need to account for the existing background radiation. I think we can safely assume that if someone has somehow successfully built a particle accelerator like the one in STAR Labs, we would see a localized increase.”

“Huh?” Barry said, emphatically, and the two scientists looked at him. 

“Ah, perhaps we should get Mr. Allen up to speed,” said Stein. “Mr. Ramon here has devised a method - with my assistance, of course - to track the radiation emitted by the particle accelerator. Specifically, the particular _frequency_ of radiation that appears to have triggered genetic mutations in individuals such as you, and myself.”

“Right, right,” Barry said. “You mean the radiation that makes metahumans.” That made sense, and it seemed like a Cisco Ramon kind of solution. “So what’s the problem?”

“Well, in fact there are _two_ problems. You may not be aware that nearly all of Central City is technically radioactive. The explosion left behind background radiation that has lingered to this day. So the first problem is that not only is the entire city awash with exactly the type of radiation we’re looking for, but the tracker is _inside_ STAR Labs, which is the greatest localized source _of_ such radiation.” Stein spread his hands, gesturing around them. “As this is our base of operations it would be difficult to set up elsewhere in the city, as we would need a source of power and to move our equipment. As such, it will be difficult - though hopefully not impossible - to detect less potent sources elsewhere, once we have established a baseline.” Stein drew a breath, and looked at Cisco. “Thankfully, in the worst case, problem number two will most likely solve problem number one.”

Barry’s head was spinning slightly, but that was rather normal when he was talking to Professor Stein in full-on ‘lecture’ mode. Which was nearly always, anyway. “Okay… so what’s problem number two?”

“Problem number two is that because there’s so much background noise, the easiest way to find the thieves is to look for a surge in the radiation,” Cisco said. “But a surge probably means that they’ve turned the particle accelerator _on_.”

Barry’s heart sank. “Well, then we don’t want to wait for problem number two. By then they might have already killed someone else - or worse, there’ll be another big explosion and _lots_ of people will be killed.”

Cisco spread his hands. “Hence why I’m a little worried about the bonage. But we’re gonna try to delete the background radiation levels from the map so we can see the worst areas and hope we _don’t_ just wind up cancelling out what we’re looking for, too.”

“This is why this baseline data should have been gathered _long ago_ , Mr. Ramon,” Stein said severely. “If we had the background levels from, say, a week ago, before the equipment was stolen, we would know immediately if there had been a localized increase of radiation.”

“Yeah well, this _data_ wasn’t exactly important before, because we thought no one would be _stupid_ enough to try to build another particle accelerator!” Cisco snapped, glaring at the screen of his computer.

The two of them went on bickering, but as they were also looking at the computer screens and actively working, Barry let them get on with their process. He looked at Caitlin, who closed the folder he’d given her. “What do you think, Caitlin?”

“Not sure,” she said, tucking the folder against her chest with a sigh. “The ME concluded that the metahuman died of a massive stroke. If it weren’t for the ligature marks and the fact that she seems to have gone through a major physical change recently, it would seem to be natural causes.”

“Could the changes have caused the stroke?”

Caitlin shrugged. “Very possible, yes. I mean, the changes were very dramatic. It could have just put a lot of strain on her body.”

Barry frowned, resisting the urge to shudder. He’d been in a coma for nine months because of his changes, but other people seemed to have come through nearly unscathed, except for getting powers. “Did anyone else have a stroke like that when they changed? Back when the first explosion happened?”

“Not that we’re aware of. It may be something to look into - any strokes or aneurysms around the time of the explosion. Someone could have died that way, but not had obvious physical changes. At that time, no one knew metahumans existed, so a death like that wouldn’t have made waves.”

“Also, Eobard Thawne really only cared about studying me,” Barry said bitterly. “He didn’t care about all the other metahumans he created with the explosion.”

Caitlin nodded sadly. “Also true. Do you want me to look into that?”

“Sure,” Barry said. It probably wouldn’t yield much in the way of tracking down their current foe, but anything they could learn about metahumans could help him in his work as the Flash. 

Then Cisco started swearing. “Oh _shit_ , Barry, you’d better get out there. There’s a surge happening _right now_.”

He turned the screen around, and Barry saw a satellite map of Central City. It was overlaid with shades of green and blue, brightening to a brilliant lime right around STAR Labs. Out in an industrial district to the west of downtown, at the other side of it from STAR Labs, was a pulsing, growing circle. Even as he watched, the lime green brightened even further, shading into yellow.

Barry whirled into action. He changed into his suit, and sped off into the city, headed straight towards where that glowing sun on the map had been. 

But he knew it was too late to stop an explosion. He was already way too late.

~ ~ ~

It was a comfort to Barry as always to have Cisco speaking in his ear, as he neared the neighbourhood where the radiation surge was happening. He’d been running for only a matter of minutes, pushing himself to the limit, and somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if Eobard could have gotten there faster.

Though even Eobard couldn’t have stopped something like this when it had already begun.

“Okay, turn at the next right,” Cisco instructed, a calm presence that Barry could hear over the faster-than-light thunder of his heartbeat in his ears. “Then take the next left. You’ll see a big metal gate. That’s the place.”

Barry turned right, and then left. Ahead, he saw a concrete wall, and a massive metal gate on wheels set into it. The gate was closed, and it looked like nothing short of a tank would breach it. 

Next to a discreet sign reading ‘NewWave Inc.’ inset into the wall, was a keypad and intercom grille. There was also a guard station just outside, but it was empty. The whole place looked deserted, but he could _feel_ a rumble underneath his feet. A vibration that set his teeth on edge, even at speed.

“I think the radiation is dissipating,” Cisco said. “Yeah! Yeah, radiation levels are dropping. I don’t think it’s going to explode.”

“Not _this_ time,” Barry gritted. He was heading straight for the gate, and he didn’t slow down.

He hit the gate and went up it, climbing at a ninety degree angle until he topped it. He maintained his momentum against the pull of gravity, by now completely familiar with how fast he needed to go to run up a vertical surface. He’d done it a hundred times.

But as he started heading down, it was like running into a wall made of marshmallows. 

He gasped, and stumbled as he began to slow down, the speed force ebbing away like it was being drained right out of his body. 

He was still moving quickly, his momentum significant, but not quickly enough to reach the ground safely. Halfway down the eight-foot gate, his feet left the surface of it and he plummeted, lightning still flickering weakly over his skin, and his feet still moving uselessly. 

He was too slow. And getting slower.

He hit the ground hard, rolled across the pavement, and fetched up in a heap in the middle of a small parking lot in front of a squat, multi-story office building.

“Barry? What happened?” Cisco yelled. “Why’d you stop?”

Barry groaned. He pushed himself up, then yelled as his elbow seemed to explode with pain. He’d taken much of the force of the fall on that arm, and he was pretty sure he’d shattered the bone. Pushing with his other arm helped a little, and he struggled to his feet, panting. 

Nothing worked right. He reached for the speed force, but it slipped through his fingers. 

“Something’s wrong,” he gasped, cradling his broken arm against his chest. Four floodlights came on, explosions of light pinning him like a butterfly against a mat. “Cisco, I don’t know what’s happening. The speed force… it’s just _gone_.”

Then he heard footsteps. Boots on concrete. Barry looked around and saw five heavily armed figures in black military-style gear come pelting out the front door of the building. Barry backed away, raising his good hand. “Hey wait, stop! Don’t shoot!”

“You’re trespassing. Surrender, Flash!” one of them yelled. Three of them dropped to their knees, sighting along their weapons and pointing them straight at him. 

He needed to run, and he couldn’t. If they fired at him, he knew he’d never be able to avoid the bullets.

A woman emerged from the building, walking up to stand just behind the soldiers - or were they private security? They all had a ‘NewWave’ insignia on their black fatigues. With the spotlights dazzling his eyes, Barry couldn’t quite make out the faces of any of the people. 

Now the woman spoke up. “Very good. It seems the speed dampeners are working. Take him into custody. He’ll be a fine addition.” 

“What are you planning to do?” Barry demanded, backing away another few steps. The commander shouted at him to stop or they’d shoot, and he knew there was nowhere to go, nothing to hide behind. Two of the soldiers had gotten to their feet and were approaching him, and the last thing he wanted to do was let them take him.

Cisco was shouting in his ear, demanding to know what was going on, but Barry couldn’t spare any attention for him at the moment.

“What am I planning?” The woman chuckled cruelly. “Let’s just say that you’ll sell well, Flash. Once we’ve trained you up a little. Take him.”

Barry’s wildly beating heart seemed to stop in his chest. “Sell?” he squeaked. Then he had an idea. “If you think you’ll get away with taking me, you’re wrong,” he snapped. “My fr— handlers know exactly where I am right now. Taking me will be all the justification they need to come and take all of your prisoners out of here.”

“The Flash has handlers?” the woman hesitated, and the two soldiers advancing towards him also paused, glancing back for instructions.

“Cisco,” Barry hissed in the moment of reprieve. “Please, please, please tell me you can get that gate behind me open.” Even as he spoke, his back hit the gate. The steel felt ice cold even through the suit. There was nowhere else to go. 

But pressed against the gate, he felt the tiniest trickle of speed force surge through his veins. It hadn’t been taken from him. It was just some kind of field effect, and here, right at the edge of the property, he was just at the edge of the field. If he could just get outside, he could escape.

“Working on it, buddy,” Cisco said seriously. “You okay?”

“Not really,” Barry admitted. “But I will be, if you can get the gate open.” 

The soldiers were advancing again, wary but determined. He drew on every bit of the speed force he could, but he already knew there was no way he’d be able to dodge even a single bullet. He had to get outside.

“Don’t worry about who he’s talking to,” the woman snapped. “That’s what I pay you all for. The flaming metahuman hasn’t been seen in weeks, and he doesn’t work with any other enhanced. His handlers are human, and they can’t do a thing. I’m not afraid of the Green Arrow, either.”

She wasn’t wrong, except in underestimating what his human friends could do, particularly Oliver Queen. Barry knew he had friends, but he didn’t want to get captured if he could avoid it, either.

The soldiers had reached him. One of them caught him by the arm and the other also reached for him, but he shied away in fear of being touched, his arm still throbbing with agony. “No, don’t!”

“He’s got a broken arm,” one of the soldiers yelled. 

“Get him to the med level first then,” the woman ordered. “When he’s healed, we’ll begin the process.” 

_What process?_

The soldier holding his arm tugged at Barry, and he stumbled forward a few steps reluctantly, pulling against the soldier’s strength. That trickle of speed force fell away, leaving him feeling even slower and clumsier than ever before. The other soldier produced a set of zipties, and was reaching again for his hurt arm. 

Then, with a grinding sound, the gate started to move. Cisco yelped his victory in Barry’s ear. “I got it!”

Barry felt the soldier’s grip on him loosen slightly in surprise, and he reacted as quickly as his slowed, normal body allowed. Barry drew on everything Oliver had taught him, and jerked away from the soldier, then shoved him as hard as he could. The soldier was wearing a helmet and body armour, so fighting him was really out of the question, but Barry only needed a few seconds of reprieve. 

He managed to catch him off guard, and push him off-balance. The man tripped, and Barry turned and ran towards the opening gate.

And straight into the arms of the other soldier.

He slammed into the soldier’s chest with all of the force his lean, lanky body could muster. The soldier grabbed for him with both hands, gun swinging free from its strap over his shoulder. The two of them stumbled a few steps while locked together, before falling hard onto the pavement just outside the gate, all in a tangle.

As they fell, Barry felt the speed force flood into him. He reacted immediately, pushing himself up at lightning speed, and slipping through the arms of the falling soldier too quickly for the man to hang on to him.

And then, Barry ran for his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry folks, you'll see Len, soon!


	3. Chapter 3

Barry didn’t stop running until he had reached STAR Labs. He came to a stop in the middle of the room and sagged, panting for breath. Though he had gotten the speed force back completely as far as he could tell, his elbow was throbbing so painfully that it was like all the energy was being drained from his body. 

Caitlin came running over to him and took him by the unhurt arm, drawing him over to the medical suite.

“What _happened_ , Barry?” Cisco demanded, trailing after them. 

Barry hopped obediently onto the table and winced as Caitlin began to examine his broken arm. “As soon as I went over the wall, I lost the speed force. I fell off the gate. Then there were all these security guards, and this woman who seemed to be in charge of them. She wanted to take me prisoner, and she said she wasn’t scared of any of you or the Arrow.”

He was babbling, and wondered if it was shock.

“Ow…” Cisco said sympathetically. “You really _fell_?”

“Yeah, I was still like six feet u— ow!” 

“Sorry, Barry,” Caitlin said. She was pressing on a particular point on his elbow and it _hurt_. She seized his forearm in her other hand. “I think you’ve dislocated your—” She pulled on his arm, and Barry yelled in pain. “—elbow.” 

He sighed. The pain was already beginning to ebb, but he felt nauseous. At least his elbow would heal properly now. 

Caitlin began to wrap the arm to keep it immobilized for the moment. Barry tried to re-focus on what he’d been saying.

“You still with me, buddy?” Cisco asked, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking down at him with worry.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” Barry said. He pulled off his cowl and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Guys, I don’t know what they’re doing in that place, but it’s _bad_. She said something about speed dampeners, and something about using me for a ‘process’.” He recalled something else, and shuddered. “She also said something about _selling_ me.”

“Selling you?” Caitlin echoed, her jaw dropping in horror.

“What is this place, some kind of metahuman slave market? That is _fucked up_ , bro. You really think she meant something like that?”

“I don’t know,” Barry said, frowning. “I don’t get it. It’s one thing to capture a metahuman or make one, and then keep them prisoner . But as soon as I left the property I got my powers back, so what was she planning to do when delivering to a buyer?”

“Dunno,” Cisco said. “But what’re we going to do, Barry? Without your speed, you can’t go back in there. They’ve got, like, _guns_ and stuff.”

Barry was silent for a few moments. “You know…maybe the cops can help.” It was such an odd idea. They didn’t usually go to the CCPD. “What if we made a report through Joe? It could be an anonymous tip that the people in that building kidnapped the girl who was murdered. If they can get a warrant, go in there, they’ll find anyone else they’ve kidnapped. Just a single suspicious thing in that building will blow the whole place wide open. It’s not like the bad guys are metahumans themselves - only their victims are. This might be a job for the cops.”

“Well, if you think it’s a good idea, Bear, let’s do it,” Cisco said, brightening.

“What’s a good idea?” Speak of the devil. Joe had just arrived. Barry had forgotten that Joe had said he would come over after his shift, which was now.

Barry glanced at Caitlin, who nodded. “You’re good to go, Barry. Your arm should be feeling a lot better in a couple of hours.” So he got up off the examination table and walked out of the medical bay, seeing his father’s eyes widen at the sight of him with a wrapped up arm.

“You okay, Bear?” Joe asked, his expression folding into a concerned frown.

“I will be,” Barry assured him. “I sort of had a little fall. Listen, I need to talk to you…about bringing in the CCPD on something.”

He quickly outlined what they had learned so far. Joe listened with a thoughtful frown. When he wrapped up explaining what they knew, Joe leaned against the desk nearby, arms crossed as he considered. “So you want the CCPD to get a warrant to go into this NewWave place, on the strength of a tip that they might be connected to the murders?”

“You think you can get a warrant for that?” Cisco asked eagerly, but Joe was already shaking his head.

“Listen, I’ve heard about that company,” he said, voice dropping, as if he was worried about being overheard. “They blew into town maybe nine months ago, started buying up real estate, paying off a _lot_ of people to get the permits and stuff. I don’t know much about it, but rumour has it they’ve got the mayor in their pocket.”

“But Joe, we’ve got to try,” Barry argued, frowning. “Maybe if I go - as the Flash - and tell them what I saw. Captain Singh believes the Flash is doing good work.”

“You really want to risk that?” Joe asked. “You remember the policeman’s ball last year? That big donation we got? That was _them_. They’ve got money to burn, a lot of influence with important people, and when it comes right down to it, your tip is nothing. You can claim you believe that the murder is connected to this company, but you’ve got _no_ actual evidence you can point to that that’s the case. Hell, all you know is you were ejected from private property by security, and that they offered you medical attention. They’ll deny that comment about selling you - and you know what? I don’t know that a Judge asked to issue a warrant would take the Flash’s word over another citizen’s, particularly when you’re admitting to trespassing. Do you even have a recording?”

Barry flushed. “Uh, no.” 

Joe was right. He could tell them that he believed NewWave was connected to the murders, but without admitting to the robbery STAR Labs had _covered up_ this morning, he couldn’t tell them why he believed that. To give the CCPD all the evidence they had in order to convince them, would be to invite the police to come into STAR Labs, which was exactly what they had been trying to avoid. 

Besides, the city still didn’t trust STAR Labs - were even hostile to them. The police might not even want to take it seriously simply because the information came from there. 

Joe put a hand on Barry’s shoulder. “I do think we can work this angle eventually, but we need more evidence.”

“The thing is, the only way to get more evidence is probably to wait for someone else to die,” Barry said. From the look on Joe’s face, he was well aware of that.

The foursome moved dejectedly to join Stein in continuing to pore over the building and put everything back to rights. The professor was still down in the Pipeline, going over the whole place with a fine-toothed comb, but it didn’t take long to get him up to speed. 

Barry worried at the problem like an old tooth as he swept up broken glass and tried to take it easy on his healing elbow. By the time the damaged equipment had all been cleared away and the new computers fully installed and up and running, it was well past nine pm, and Barry had only thought of one other thing to try.

The fact was, he needed to get into NewWave. He had to get in and he had to do it quickly, before more people could get hurt. If he could just get in, he could at least get the particle accelerator components back, and stop them from continuing to do whatever they were doing, while he also worked on trying to overcome the speed dampeners. 

Hell, if he could get in safely, maybe he could find the way they were dampening his powers, and stop that. Then he could do whatever was needed to stop the operation in its tracks, rescue the victims, and bring the bad guys to justice. 

But until he found a way in, he was powerless. 

And there were only a few people he knew who could stand toe to toe with metahumans, even though they weren’t metahumans themselves. More than that, they were really good at getting into places and stealing things. Like equipment.

Thing was, he was pretty sure Joe would have a fit if he let him know he was thinking of going to the Rogues for assistance again, so he said nothing about it to anyone, and instead agonized over what he was going to say when and if he located Snart. 

There were a million ways that this could go wrong. For one thing, Barry really didn’t know if Leonard Snart would be willing to help him a second time. Sure, he, Cisco, and Caitlin had helped him and his sister out - you could say that Snart owed him. But Barry had also arrested Snart and threw him in jail for killing his father, and he wasn’t really sure if Len had forgiven him for that. Barry hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him since Christmas. On many levels, that had been a relief, but now he needed to find him.

As he left the lab, he told Joe not to wait up for him, that he was going to do some patrols and see if he could find out anything else. Then he headed to Saints and Sinners.

~ ~ ~

When Leonard Snart walked into his favourite dive bar around midnight after a hard day casing the Central City Art Gallery for the fifth day in a row, he knew immediately that something was different. His eyes arrowed instantly to the misfit at the bar, sitting tensely on a stool with a dead zone of curiosity around him.

Everyone in the bar was subtly looking at the kid - or nearly everyone. Few people came in here who weren’t regulars, and the regulars all knew each other. No one knew a skinny nerd dressed in a red T-shirt and drinking what looked like - and actually might be - ice water.

Len sighed. This was far from the first time Barry Allen had come in here looking for trouble. One really wondered if he would ever learn.

He crossed the bar and leaned on it, watching with amusement as Barry’s head came up and swivelled, eyes widening in surprise. He looked like he’d been waiting here a while. A small forest of peanut shells surrounded his stool and his glass had left an inch-wide puddle of condensation around it.

“Let me guess,” Len drawled. “You’re looking for me.”

The surprised look shifted to relief, and that just confirmed it for Len without Barry even having to open his mouth. He did anyway, though. “Hey Snart, uh, yeah. I need to talk to you.”

As Barry turned on the stool, Len’s eyes were caught by a white bandage wrapped around his arm. He looked at it critically. “You get hurt?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s nothing,” Barry said, fiddling with the bandage and actually beginning to unwrap it. “Actually, it’s all healed by now.”

Len paused on the edge of asking him what happened, then decided that assuaging his curiosity would probably only encourage the kid. “All right. So what do you want? Have more metahumans you need shifted? Because we all know how well _that_ turned out last time.”

“No— I mean, maybe,” Barry said, flushing. “But not like you think. I need…” He hesitated, like he was trying to choose the right words. “I need you to help me steal something.”

To say that Len’s interest was piqued by that was a hell of an understatement. But Len was a pretty damn good poker player, so he didn’t let his face twitch. He leaned forward, arching a brow. “Oh _really_? You coming over to the dark side, Flash?” he purred in an undertone, knowing the music and general ambiance would cover the words. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

“ _No_ , I’m not.” Barry’s expression flared with annoyance. “See, the thing is, there was a break-in at STAR Labs, and a component of the particle accelerator was stolen. I need to get it back. I know where it probably is, and I think the people who took it are going to cause another explosion.”

Good poker player Len might be, but even he couldn’t suppress a reaction to that idea. “Who the hell would want to do that?”

“I think they want to make more metahumans,” Barry said, his voice dropping almost to a whisper. “Like, to sell on the black market. I don’t _know_ exactly. But I have to stop them.”

Len straightened and looked around the bar critically. No one was close enough to listen in, at least. “Well, why don’t you just—” He waved a hand vaguely. “Do your thing? You’ve never had a problem getting in and out of places in the past. Or do you just need us to do the heavy lifting, because I’ll pass. I’m not a transportation service.”

“I tried… and that’s how I broke my elbow.” Barry dropped the bandage and splint onto the bar with a clatter. “They have some kind of speed dampeners around there. I can’t speed once I’m past the gate, not at all. They nearly captured me tonight.”

Len turned his head and saw Barry looking up at him, a determined cast to his green eyes. 

And under it, a little fear. Len could think of a few reasons why. Barry was giving up a big potential weakness here, if Len could find out how that speed dampening tech worked. Len had to be impressed by his resolve - or maybe his desperation. 

“Don’t tell me that you’ll ‘think about it’, Snart,” Barry said urgently. “Someone was already killed. Don’t know if you heard about a body found by the water today? They were half mutated, and they’d been tied up. I think they tried to turn someone into a metahuman already. If we don’t stop them, something really bad is going to happen to _your_ home. _Again_.”

Len thought about it, anyway. No matter how much Barry tried to hurry him, he wasn’t about to agree to anything without considering the angles. So he slid onto the stool next to Barry and stole a few peanuts, cracking the shells and eating them one by one, while Barry sat there and practically _vibrated_ next to him.

“I might be inclined to give you a few pointers on the cheap,” he said slowly. “But you’ll get caught trying to do this by yourself without your speed. What you _need_ is for us - and by ‘us’ I mean, at minimum, Mick and I - to plan and execute a full-on job as complex as any jewellery heist. To do this right, the speed dampeners have to be destroyed or stolen, along with the rest of the equipment they could use for a particle accelerator. _And_ I assume you’re looking for the prisoners - if any - to be rescued.”

Barry straightened up eagerly. “So you’ll do it?”

Len raised a finger. “Not so fast. I _never_ said that.”

Barry sagged. “Please, Snart. You have to see that this is bad.”

“I do see that,” Len said and shifted against the bar thoughtfully. This sounded like a lot of work, but the truth was that he didn’t want to see another particle accelerator explosion either. “I also know you wouldn’t have come to me unless you had no other choice. Thing is, you’ve already given me what I wanted - my records are expunged, except for the most recent arrest.”

“I-I could do that again,” Barry offered weakly, and Len had to smile. He was so eager, and it _was_ tempting, but he shook his head. These opportunities were so rare, he didn’t want to waste them.

“I’m not worried about my criminal record - not right now, not until it starts to get long again,” he said smugly. “No, you’ll have to give me something else.”

“What?”

Oh, this was going to be good. Len shifted on his stool and rested his chin on his hand, looking at Barry. His eyes moved down, and then up, slow and steady and finally landing on Barry’s face. The kid looked baffled, but was blushing all the same, the flush rising up his cheeks like Len’s eyes were a heat ray. 

“I want you,” he purred. “I do whatever I want to you, and I’ll not only teach you to be a thief, I’ll bring you on the heist.”

Barry made a soft, vaguely choking noise, and quickly looked away. “A-are you crazy?” he squeaked at his water glass. “You want to have sex with me? That’s what you want?”

Oh, that reaction was just _adorable_. Of course he was going to say no, but that was all right - this hadn’t really been a serious suggestion. Len had a few other more practical things in mind, and he did intend to make Barry work for it, but starting the negotiation like this had been worth the price of admission. 

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

Len froze. “What?”

Barry looked up, green eyes fierce and defiant. “I’ll do it. I’ll have sex with you. But you have to _promise_ you’ll help me get into NewWave, destroy the speed dampeners, steal back the equipment they took, _and_ rescue any prisoners safely, and help me get out again too. You have to promise _all of that_. And if you betray me again, Snart, then our deal is off. I’ll make sure you go back to Iron Heights for the murder conviction, and _stay_ there. I swear to god I will.”

“I promise,” Len said, too quickly. He usually kept it cool, but Barry’s response and that determined look took his breath away.

And then, he leaned forward. In for a penny, in for a pound. “It’ll take a while to plan a heist like this. So don’t think you’re off the hook after just one night.”

He watched Barry’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed, and wondered what it would taste like if he licked that trickle of sweat right off the side of Barry’s neck.

“I understand,” Barry whispered. “Whatever you want, Snart.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience everyone! I was down for a headcold and that made it hard to focus.
> 
> I come back bearing smut.

Barry saw the surprise on Len’s face when he accepted his deal, though it was just a flicker like lightning - gone almost before the expression had fully formed. In fact, he couldn’t be sure he had seen it at all. Barry had a moment of wondering if it had even been a serious offer, but Len certainly acted like it was, and before Barry could consider taking it back, the deal was done, and Len pushed away from the bar, getting to his feet.

His stomach was doing flip-flops as he got up as well, his sneakers crunching on peanut shells. What the hell had possessed him to agree so quickly to that ridiculous demand?

Well, he knew what had possessed him. The rush of heat that had gone through him, the images running through his head. His mouth had gone dry, and Barry’s cock had given a twitch in his pants at the look of desire on Len’s face. There was no question what his _hormones_ thought of the offer. His groin was telling him in no uncertain terms that putting himself into Captain Cold’s hands was the - well, _hottest_ thing that anyone had ever suggested.

But his head was screaming - mostly in Joe’s voice - that this was literally the dumbest thing he had ever agreed to do.

Still, when Len told him to follow, Barry went. 

They walked out of the bar together, Barry trailing in the older man’s wake and feeling the eyes of every person in the bar pressing against his skin. He was sure none of them had heard the content of their conversation, but he was blushing anyway, certain somehow that they all knew exactly where Len was taking him.

Although, _he_ had no idea where Len was taking him.

They stepped outside and Snart walked up to a motorcycle parked out front. He straddled it, and put on a black motorcycle helmet adorned with a subtle blue pattern like frost on a window. “You want to ride, or keep up on foot?” he asked. “I don’t have a spare helmet, but it’s not far.”

Barry wasn’t wearing his speedster outfit, so he hesitated, then got onto the bike behind Snart. He slid forward on the seat, wrapping his arms around Len from behind. “This is okay,” he said. “Uh, where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” Len purred, and kicked the engine on. They roared away from Saints and Sinners. 

Barry could feel his heart thumping hard in his chest as they drove, the wind whipping his hair around and Len’s body warm against his front. His nervousness mounted with every mile, but thankfully the trip really was short. They pulled up in front of a nondescript storefront, boarded up and apparently long abandoned. Len parked, and Barry got off the bike, then he produced a set of keys and unlocked the rolling steel door. Len raised it with a rattling squeal, just enough to pull the bike inside, through the shattered glass of the storefront.

He glanced back at Barry, who was still standing on the sidewalk in confusion. There were still two headless mannequins in the window, a few tatters of clothing hanging from them. Beyond, the store was shrouded in gloom. This didn’t seem like a place where someone lived. Was he just storing his bike in some abandoned store? Why? 

“Well?” Len prompted, still holding the gate up at shoulder height. “You coming in? If you’ve changed your mind…”

Barry swallowed and darted forward, maybe a little too quickly. “I haven’t changed my mind,” he said, joining Len just inside the store. Len gave a satisfied nod, then he rolled the steel door shut again and plunged them into near-total darkness.

Len caught his hand, making Barry jump. “Follow me, Flash,” Len purred, his voice dark and liquid. Barry shivered and followed when the older man tugged, picking his way between dusty, tarp-covered clothing displays that smelled of must and rotting fabric. He couldn’t see where he was going, but at the back of the store, Len opened a door into what Barry would have assumed led to a bathroom, or maybe a limited storage area for the store.

Instead, there was a staircase that led upwards.

“What is this place?” Barry whispered as they climbed the stairs. 

“Just a place,” Len said absently. At the top of the stairs was a door, and Len inserted another key, letting them in.

Beyond was a cute, clean one-bedroom apartment. The windows were covered with newspaper, so the street lights barely filtered through, but Len switched on a light, revealing a plush white sofa in front of a large television, a sparklingly clean kitchenette, and a large kitchen table covered in papers that looked like blueprints. Len released Barry’s hand and moved to the kitchen area, rolling up the papers and stuffing them into a tube.

Barry looked around in amazement. “Is this where you live?”

No, but it’s a building I own,” Len said, arching a brow. “You really think I’d show you where I actually live?”

Barry’s cheeks felt hot. “I guess not. Though you know where _I_ live,” he added accusatorially. He still wasn’t sure he forgave Snart for invading his home last Christmas. 

Snart grinned wickedly. “Now that’s entirely different.”

“How so?” Barry argued, his shoulders tightening. “I never kidnapped anyone you care about. I’m not a criminal.”

Len finished putting his things away, the smile replaced by a neutral expression. “Yes, but you didn’t have to tell me. I just found out on my own. If you ever figure out where I live, then you’ve proven you deserve the information.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Snart,” Barry said. “Besides, if I ever found out where you really live, I bet you’d just move.”

Len looked up, and smirked. “You’re right. I would.” He pointed at the sofa. “Strip, and sit down.”

Barry froze, his frustration draining away instantly, replaced by a cold sense of nervousness. “Er, what?”

“Did you forget what we’re here for?” Len asked idly, leaning against the table and folding his arms. His eyes flicked up and down Barry’s body again, lazily mapping out every contour with his gaze.

“N-no, but I mean—”

“Did you think this deal involved wine and roses?” Len challenged him, his eyes flickering with a cold fire. “Did you think I was taking you out to a movie first?”

“No…” Barry looked away and down. Len was right. He had requested sex, and sex was what Barry had agreed to give him. Maybe he was used to a little more foreplay, but he shouldn’t have expected anything more or different from this. Captain Cold didn’t exactly strike him as the sentimental, gentle type, either.

He was _totally_ in over his head, that was obvious. But what could he do? He needed Snart’s expertise and help, and people’s lives were on the line. And it wasn’t like he wasn’t attracted to Len.

He pulled off his t-shirt, then flinched as Len suddenly walked towards him. Barry’s head came up, eyes widening as he felt his heart give a lurch of fear, but Len just reached out and took the shirt, folding it up. “Don’t just drop things everywhere,” he said. “You can have these back when we’re done. Go on.”

Barry swallowed. His throat felt like it was closing up. But he undid the fly of his jeans and dropped them. Len’s eyes bored into his skin as he bent and pulled off his shoes and socks, and stripped off his underwear. He folded the clothes neatly, keeping his eyes trained on them as he did so. 

He didn’t know what he’d see when he looked at Len and he was afraid to find out. Was he amused? Excited? Contemptuous? Did he think Barry was a slut for having gone along with this?

But as he straightened up again, he didn’t have much choice but to look at Snart, and he felt cowardly at avoiding it in the first place. His eyes flicked up, and he saw only a curious expression, overlaid by enough desire to surprise him. 

Len took the clothes and walked away. “Sit,” he reiterated. “I’ll be back.”

Barry watched him go into the other room, heart pounding in his chest. He was totally naked in Captain Cold’s living room. A living room owned by Captain Cold, anyway. 

Well, there was no point in just standing there like an idiot in the middle of the room. He considered looking at the papers Len had put away, but decided it really wasn’t what he was here for. He was probably planning another heist, but Barry had promised to leave him alone unless Len hurt anyone, so there was no point in snooping and probably making Len angry. 

He heard footsteps in the other room, coming back, and realized he really had been standing around too long. He flashed over to the sofa and sat down just as Len emerged. The older man’s hands were empty, so Barry figured he had been putting his clothes away. How…fastidious of him - though Barry thought it probably shouldn’t have been surprising that Len was a bit of a neat freak.

Len nodded approvingly at the sight of Barry sitting on the sofa, then walked into the kitchen. “You want a drink?”

“Uh…no thanks.” Barry hands rested in his lap. He stared at them fixedly. It was cold in this apartment. Not so cold that it was uncomfortable normally, but since he was naked, his skin was beginning to prickle with gooseflesh.

Len cocked his head. “You sure? You’d probably feel better if you loosened up a bit.”

“Doesn’t matter. I can’t feel any effects from alcohol, anyway,” Barry said. That was one of the reasons he was drinking ice water at the bar. He had originally ordered one drink, but then had been waiting so long, it would’ve gotten expensive if he kept ordering more and he wouldn’t have even gotten tipsy.

There was a pause. “Your powers suck, Flash.” 

Barry smiled a little despite himself. “No, my powers are great. But that part sucks, yeah.”

He listened as Len poured himself a drink and walked back out to the sofa. The older man was barefoot now, Barry noticed, but otherwise he was still fully dressed. Len sat down next to him. He had a glass of some kind of amber liquid in one hand, and he slipped the other arm around Barry, drawing him close. 

“Are you freaking out?” Len asked, sounding more amused than concerned. His fingers played over Barry’s arm, brushing up and down and making Barry shiver, even though the embrace was warm.

“No,” Barry said. Len made a disbelieving noise.

Okay, maybe he was freaking out a little. He didn’t know what Len was going to make him do. His mind kept making up more and more degrading and frightening options, and being naked while Len was completely clothed wasn’t helping him feel any less vulnerable.

“Tell me more about this place we’re going to rob,” Len said. His hand was wandering down Barry’s back, and Barry shifted, resting his head against the older man’s shoulder.

“Um, you really want to talk about that right now?” Barry asked, his voice was a little shaky. Len’s fingers weren’t rough, exactly, but he could feel callouses as the fingertips seemed to count his vertebrae. His skin felt hyper-sensitive, and every touch made him twitch and his breathing come a little faster.

“You said you’d do what I want,” Len pointed out, then took a sip of his drink and set it down on a side table. “So talk.”

Confused, Barry began to describe what they knew, and everything that had happened from when he sped off to stop the radiation until he escaped once again. Len asked a multitude of questions about everything he had seen, from the gate to the walls, to the front door of the building and the structure of the building itself, and the parking lot and grounds. 

Len wanted to know where exactly was he when the speed force left him? How many guards? Did he see any cameras? Any strange equipment? How were the guards outfitted and equipped? What could he tell him about the woman in charge of them? Barry struggled to remember things he had never even thought to pay attention to.

And as he talked, he realized that he was relaxing. Both of Len’s hands were on him now. Len rubbed fingers over his skin, front and back, just _feeling_ him. He tweaked a nipple and Barry stumbled over his words, gasping and pressing closer. Len rumbled approval at the reaction, and began to rub his thumbs over his nipples. 

As Barry struggled to answer questions about what he had seen there, Len leaned in and nibbled at Barry’s ear. His tongue flickered over Barry’s earlobe and the shell of his ear, and he whispered between kisses to Barry’s cheek, ear, and jawline, urging Barry to draw out even more details.

It was incredibly distracting.

And through it all, Len asked questions unrelentingly, until Barry couldn’t think of anything more to tell him. He was fully erect, his cock aching and throbbing, and his brain felt like Len had wrung it out like a sponge.

Finally, Len caught him by the chin, and tilted his head upwards so they were looking at each other. “All right. We’ll have to case the place tomorrow, fill in more gaps. I want you to get Ramon to put together every scrap of information he can about the area and the building. CCTV footage, permits, everything. If he can get me the actual blueprints from the city, even better. You think he can do that?”

“Y-yeah, yeah I’m sure he can,” Barry said, breathless. Len’s other hand was resting on his upper thigh, and it was driving him crazy.

“Good,” Len purred, and then kissed him. Barry let out a moan of relief, and shifted as close as he could, pressing chest to chest. Len’s hands guided him up, and in a moment Barry was straddling Len’s thighs, and their tongues were tangling together, sliding over each other and into each other’s mouths. Len tasted of scotch and peppermint, and Barry wanted to drown in it. 

He had never been so turned on and frustrated in his entire life. Why hadn’t Len asked all these questions earlier? What was the point in getting him undressed just to grill him for an hour about the job?

Well, he’d ask him later, because right now he was far too busy trying to play hockey with Len’s tonsils. 

Len broke the kiss first. “You ever been with a man before?” He was hunting in his pocket, and pulled out a tube of lubricant. Barry looked at it, and blushed, but nodded.

“Yeah? Yeah I have.”

“And if I wanted to fuck you tonight?”

Barry looked at him, at those cool blue eyes that were so penetrating he felt sometimes like Len’s gaze could burrow right under his skin. “Yes, please…”

That seemed to satisfy Len. He smirked and shifted, laying Barry down on the sofa with surprising gentleness. Barry’s legs were still parted, and Len knelt between them, one knee on the cushions and a foot on the floor. He opened his fly one-handed and then slicked his fingers with the lube.

They kissed again, slower and sweeter, and Barry moaned as Len penetrated him with a finger. He was almost dizzy with desire, and with the thrill of what was happening right now. He had forgotten his earlier fear.

As Len pushed a second finger into him and his fingertips rubbed against his prostate, he shuddered at the sensation, and felt the speed force flicker through him. He vibrated, and Len gasped against his lips, pulling up suddenly and looking at him. Barry opened his eyes, seeing a startled expression on Len’s face, which quickly shifted to thoughtfulness. Those fingers moved inside him again, and once again, Barry jumped and blurred and squirmed with desire.

“Jesus Christ, Barry,” Len murmured, his voice rich with desire. “What are you doing?”

“S-sorry,” Barry gasped. “I…I can’t always control it.”

“What the fuck are you _apologizing_ for?” Len asked with a laugh and a fierce grin. A third finger pushed into Barry’s body, and Barry yelled, arching his back and blurring a third time. “You’d better not _stop_.”

Len worked his fingers in and out. Barry cried out and squirmed, struggling not to lose control too much despite Len’s words. He couldn’t quite hold on, though, and each time Len brushed against his prostate, he vibrated again. The last time he had been with a man had been in college, long before he became the Flash. Now he was starting to get worried that he couldn’t contain himself.

Len didn’t seem worried at all. He pulled his fingers free and shifted forward eagerly, guiding his cock between Barry’s legs. He pressed into him with a soft groan and kissed him roughly, hands holding Barry steady as he began to thrust.

It was incredible. Barry writhed, his body all but split open by Len’s cock. Len grasped him by the hips, angling him precisely, and each time he thrust into Barry’s body, he rubbed against that sensitive spot inside him that lit him up with pleasure. Barry was aware he was yelling, even screaming Len’s name, and each time the pleasure mounted higher, he _vibrated_ , and Len swore.

“Barry. _Fuck_. Barry!” Len gasped. 

Barry cried out again, and then he was coming. Fluid splashed his chest and stomach, and Barry screamed Len’s name again. His body clenched and writhed, and Barry was completely helpless in Len’s hands, as the older man swore again, and emptied himself deep into Barry’s body a few moments later.

Barry lay insensible, gasping and shuddering in the aftermath of the most intense orgasm he’d had in a long time. He was aware of Len laying over him, arms wrapped around him and cradling him, his breath hot against Barry’s neck. Len softened and slipped from him, and then the older man gathered him up. Barry realized he was being lifted, but didn’t protest as he was carried into the next room, through what proved to be a dimly-lit bedroom, and into a bathroom. 

“Probably ruined my sofa,” Len purred, filled with smug self-satisfaction as he sat Barry down on the edge of the tub and handed him a damp towel. 

“You could’ve decided to do that somewhere else,” Barry pointed out. He blushed anyway, though and began to clean up the spunk on - and inside - his body. Len was still fully dressed, and had tucked himself away like nothing had happened, but the older man stayed close, caressing Barry’s hair and letting fingers drift down his back.

“True,” Len said. “You’re staying the night.” It didn’t really sound like a question. “We’ll go to STAR Labs first thing tomorrow, and get Cisco started on the research we need done.”

Barry froze at this, hesitating. “Um, he doesn’t know I’m here… Actually, no one does. Joe’s expecting me home tonight, ah—” Len’s fingers had tightened in his hair, not cruelly. Barry thought maybe he was just surprised. “I mean, I can call him and let him know I won’t be home.”

“You call him. You can break the news that we’re working together in your own time,” Len said, releasing him and turning to walk back out of the bathroom. “You’re staying the night,” he said again.

“Yeah… yeah I am,” Barry said, flushing. He didn’t _want_ to leave, anyway. He had finished cleaning up, so he dropped the dirty rag into the bathtub to deal with later and got up, following Len out into the bedroom. 

The older man was unbuttoning his shirt, back turned towards Barry. Barry looked around and spotted his clothes sitting on a dresser. He walked over and retrieved his cellphone, and called Joe.

“Hey Barry, you still not home?” Joe’s voice was rough. Barry must have woken him - which was a relief. He’d have felt bad if Joe was waiting up for him. “Everything okay?”

“Um, yeah, everything’s good,” Barry said, though he felt a twinge at the not-quite-lie. “Look, I got busy following up on a couple of leads, and I just didn’t want you to be worried. I’m crashing at a friend’s and I’ll be home tomorrow, okay?”

Joe yawned. “Okay, Bear. Be safe, all right?”

“I will.” He hung up and set the phone down again, feeling Len’s eyes on him. 

“You gonna tell Detective West?”

Barry felt his shoulders tighten. “Ah… he’s going to freak out enough that I’m working with you again,” he said. “I don’t think he needs to know about the specific details.”

He turned as Len made an amused noise, and his breath caught again. Len was nude. Despite his age, he was trim and firm from head to toe, powerful and lean and muscled. But what also caught Barry’s attention was the scars littering his body. Most of them were faint, almost invisible in the dim light, but he saw them, and knew what they meant. 

Lewis really had been a monster. He knew that before, but now he felt a surge of impotent anger at this evidence of the pain Len had been put through.

He realized abruptly that Len was watching him with a dark expression, gaze more wary than Barry had ever seen. Barry quickly moved towards him and found a smile, catching Len’s hand and then deciding that was a bit too high school, so he wrapped his arms around the older man instead. “Let’s go to bed? I’ll figure out how to break this to my father in the morning.”

He felt a tightness in Len’s body ease, and the older man returned the embrace. They fell into bed and Len wrapped them in blankets, as Barry snuggled up against his chest. 

“You’re not that bad,” he told Len, who chuckled.

“This is just day one.”


	5. Chapter 5

Len really couldn’t believe his luck. He was a better businessman than he ever thought. All he had to do was teach the Flash how to steal things - a subject matter that figured large in at least half a dozen of his fantasies about his young nemesis - and in return he got to have amazing, unreal, superhuman sex all he wanted.

Win. Fucking. Win.

All he had to do was keep things under control and avoid getting arrested before this mission was done.

Sleeping beside Barry Allen was nice - waking up beside him was like a literal ~~pornographic fantasy~~ dream come true. He woke the boy with a blowjob that ended in Barry screaming his orgasm into a corner of the duvet, and then sent him off with a slap on the ass to shower, while he rubbed one out into the already dirty sheets. 

Then he made pancakes. Blueberry ones. He let Barry eat them while Len took a turn with the shower, because making the kid breakfast was one thing, but _eating_ breakfast together was just a little too desperately domestic for his comfort. He was still capable of pretending at this point that he was in control of his own life.

Once they were both clean, fed, and dressed, it was time to leave.

“You gonna warn them I’m coming?” Len asked, nodding to Barry’s cellphone, which the young man was holding thoughtfully in one hand while he tried to put his sneakers on with the other.

“Ah… I’m thinking. You know? I was thinking that maybe I would just run there real quick and let them know what’s going on, and then you can come on the bike, and by the time I get there everyone will have calmed down,” Barry stammered, shoving his cellphone in his pocket and doing a little hopping dance as he finished pulling his shoes on.

Len pictured that, considered it from all angles. It was…unlikely that he’d walk into an ambush. Barry seemed sincere, after all, in wanting Len’s help. 

But then again. It would be really funny for them to arrive together.

“Nah, you can ride with me,” he said, and pulled a second helmet out of his closet, which he tossed to Barry. Barry fumbled it, clutched it to his chest, and stared at Len in disbelief. 

“You really think that’s a good idea? I mean…”

“If you want, I could call Mick, too. He’d _love_ to accompany us,” Len said teasingly. 

“Uh… come on, Snart,” Barry complained. 

“Then it’ll just be the two of us,” Len said, and opened the door.

Barry sighed, and followed him down the stairs. 

“You realize I’m going to be bringing Mick in on this, right?” Len said more seriously as he swung his leg over the bike and waited for Barry to hop on behind him. He wondered if it had occurred to Barry that he really didn’t _need_ Len’s permission to go to STAR Labs on foot. He could just run there no matter what Len wanted. The only area where Len had demanded his obedience was when it came to sex. 

Apparently Barry hadn’t thought of that because he made no move to disobey, despite his obvious reluctance. Barry slid onto the bike and hung on. Len took a moment to enjoy the feeling of those arms around his waist. “Yeah, I understand that. And that’s fine. You and Mick Rory are a team and you’ll do a better job together. I just think it’s a good idea to break it to the gang slowly.”

“You’re probably right,” Len said with a twist to his lips. “I might bring in Lisa as well. We’ll see.”

“Okay,” Barry said agreeably. “Whatever you think is best.”

Len wasn’t sure yet. There were still a lot of variables, and unknowns. For now, he headed for STAR Labs.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t anticipated that there would be… _guests_ at STAR Labs. He parked and allowed Barry to lead the way inside, hands tucked inside the pockets of his jacket as he rode up the elevator with the young man. But when the doors open, it was to Joe West pointing a gun at his face.

He withdrew his hands from his pockets, and raised them. “Barry,” he purred, his eyes locked on West’s. “Handle it.”

“Joe!” Barry exclaimed. “Put the gun down. Snart’s with me.”

“I can see that, Bear. What’s he doing here?” Joe said tightly. “I thought you said you were spending the night with a friend, only—”

“Ah, I don’t really have very many friends, I know,” Barry said sheepishly. “I mean, outside of this room. But seriously, Joe, _seriously_ put the gun down and I’ll explain everything.”

“Or I could just go,” Len offered, rolling his eyes.

“No!” Barry yelped. He scooted sideways, insinuating himself between his father’s firearm and Leonard’s face, and the detective finally lowered the gun and holstered it.

Joe directed a pointed glare at Barry, and then at Len, then at Barry again. “You,” he said, pointing at Barry. “In private.” Then he swung that dark finger to point at Len. “You. Behave.”

“Yes, sir,” Barry said, at the same moment that Len said, “No promises.”

Barry glared at Len, who smirked. It _had_ been fun to show up unannounced. He hadn’t been nervous for even a moment - no way would Joe West blow his face off right in front of everyone, particularly since Len had barely said a word.

Barry and Joe vanished through a doorway, and Len strolled across the room. Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon were there, of course. He would have wondered if they ever went anywhere else, if it weren’t for the fact that he knew where they lived and had a fairly accurate picture of their daily routines. 

“So.” Cisco said. He had a strip of licorice between his teeth. He bit down and chewed. “Captain Cold. You uh, spending time with Barry now?”

Len reached the desk where Cisco was sitting, and leaned on it. Caitlin sidled away, pretending that she was just coincidentally checking something on another monitor a little further away from where Len was. Cisco leaned back slightly, and fidgeted with his candy.

Len plucked a strip of candy from the package, and Cisco yelped in protest. Len straightened up and took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. “So. Cisco Ramon,” he purred. “You jealous?”

“What? Pfft, _no_ ,” Cisco said unconvincingly. He turned an exaggerated look of amazement towards Caitlin, who shrugged wordlessly and widened her eyes as if she agreed that Len had said something ridiculous. “Uh, well. But, I mean, not that there’s anything to be _jealous_ about. What would there even be to be jealous about, anyway?”

Len thought for a moment about Barry naked and writhing under him, and allowed a self-satisfied smile to cross his face. Cisco’s eyes widened. Len said, “Absolutely nothing. Now, I have work for you to do.”

“What?” Cisco exclaimed, pushing back from his desk. “Why would I do any work for you?”

“Because, the _Flash_ and I have made a deal,” Len said. “I’m going to help him recover the equipment that was stolen from you, and destroy the devices that are suppressing his speed.”

Cisco blinked, and then - to his credit - his eyes narrowed suspiciously. “In return for what?”

“That’s between Mr. Allen and myself,” Len said smoothly. “Now, I need you to pull the blueprints for the building where Barry was nearly captured yesterday. Can you do that?”

Cisco drew himself up proudly under Len’s look. “Can I do that? You’ve got to be joking. I can totally do that. In fact, I’ve already _done_ that, so sit down and watch the magic.” He cracked his knuckles and got to work.

Len _did_ sit down. He sat on the edge of Cisco’s desk and looked at Caitlin, who was trying not to stare at them.

“Dr. Snow,” he murmured.

She glared at him, then looked away. “We had better not regret this.”

He shrugged. “Out of my hands.”

~ ~ ~

Barry followed Joe down the hallway and into a small storage room. He was pretty sure Joe had lectured him in this very same room before, but it was far from the only place in STAR Labs where Joe had lectured him in the past. Maybe he should just accept the fact that he did things too often that were worthy of a Joe lecture.

The door closed and Barry braced himself as Joe turned towards him, his expression dark and shaded with disappointment. 

“You lied to me, Barry. So let’s start over - what’s really going on between you and Snart, and why didn’t you tell me about it sooner?”

“I didn’t lie!” Barry said, though his chest clenched anyway at the accusation. “I knew you’d be upset if I told you what I was planning to do.”

“Oh you _knew_ I’d be upset, so you didn’t tell me!” Joe exclaimed, raising his hands in frustration. “So now I’m not supposed to be upset?”

“I was going to tell you! I didn’t think midnight when you were half asleep and over the phone was a good time,” Barry snapped, wincing at the fierceness of his own tone. “I went to Saints and Sinners last night and met up with Snart, because we need someone who can get into NewWave and stop what’s happening. They’re able to stop my speed, Joe. I need help with this.”

“You don’t need _their_ help—”

“Then whose help, Joe? _Whose_?” 

There was a ringing silence, as Barry’s shout echoed off the walls, and they both looked at each other, at a loss. 

Barry drew in a breath and let it out. “I know what you’re thinking. I _do_. Snart betrayed us once before, and he might do it again. But that was before we helped his sister - saved her life.”

Joe looked down at the floor, blowing a breath out his nose. “You also arrested Snart that day. Put him in jail. He can’t be happy with you about that.”

“I know,” Barry said humbly. “But when he broke out, he had a chance to take his revenge for that, and he didn’t take it. He even warned me that Mardon and James Jesse were going to come after me. He’s changed his mind about me - I think he really will help this time.”

“And if you’re wrong?”

Barry swallowed and looked away for a moment, then looked up. “If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong. I’m more scared about NewWave and what they’re doing to people than scared for myself if Leonard Snart decides to stab me in the back again.”

“I’m scared about both,” Joe whispered.

Barry shifted his weight uncomfortably, and Joe’s fingers twitched. That was invitation enough, and the two men embraced. Joe squeezed him tightly, like he didn’t want to let go, and Barry allowed himself to sink into the strong arms and the smell of Joe’s aftershave. They had always made him feel so safe, ever since he was a kid, and now was no exception.

When Joe’s arms loosened, Barry stepped back, and Joe clapped him on the shoulder. “You know I only get upset because I’m worried about you, right?”

Barry smiled. “I know.”

He turned to leave, Joe on his heels, but Joe’s next question brought him up short. “One more thing. What did you promise him for helping you? I can’t imagine he’d do this out of the goodness of his heart.”

Barry winced. “Oh, that,” he said awkwardly. He struggled for a moment, but he knew he couldn’t lie. Joe would sense it in a heartbeat. “Ah… I sort of promised to sleep with him.”

“ _What_?!”

The others probably heard Joe’s shout from the main lab.


	6. Chapter 6

By the time the argument between Barry and Joe concluded, Cisco had found the blueprints and schematics for the NewWave building, and Len had eaten three of Cisco’s licorice strips. 

Len was still perched on Cisco’s desk, and was pondering where he might find a table to spread the blueprints out on so he could start planning. The door opened and Barry slunk back in, looking harried and unhappy. Joe paced at his side, face wooden. Len had heard some of the shouting, though he couldn’t hear what Joe had said to his foster son. 

The moment Len saw the detective, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up with anger. He could _feel_ himself scowling, and Joe’s gaze zeroed straight in on Len with a glare of his own. They locked eyes. Then, the big man stomped right over to Len and pointed a finger straight at his nose.

“If you hurt one _hair_ on his head—”

“Blah, blah,” Len drawled with an ease he didn’t feel, pushing the finger aside and resisting the urge to reach for his cold gun. “I’ve heard it. You’ll put me in the ground - but of course, that assumes you can even touch me. So I guess he told you about our terms.” Joe’s eyes narrowed, and his face reddened with renewed fury.

“Terms?” Caitlin spoke up. “What terms?”

Barry covered his face in both hands and moaned.

“You _don’t_ want to know,” Joe said, and his lips twisted as if he’d just sucked on a lemon. 

Len didn’t much care for Joe’s obvious assessment of his sexual desirability, and stood up abruptly. “Ramon. Blueprints,” he growled, holding out a hand.

Cisco was sitting in his chair, looking shellshocked. At Len’s command, he jumped up and moved to the printer, pulling a number of large sheets off and rolling them up. “Uh, here. Here you go. Do you need anything else?”

“I’m good, for now,” Len said. He still hadn’t taken his eyes off of Joe. “I’m gonna take these back to my place and then do a little recon, once I have a better idea of what I’m up against. All of you can just play pong or whatever it is you do when you’re not fighting metahumans. I’ve got this. When I need something, I’ll call.”

“I don’t play _pong_ ,” Cisco said, offended. “Not that there’s anything _wrong_ with playing pong. It’s a total classic! God, you’re old.”

Len ignored him and headed for the door. “Come on, Barry.”

Barry jumped, and moved to follow, but Joe’s hand landed on his shoulder and held him back. “Barry, are you _sure_?” Joe asked in an undertone that reached Len easily. The thief stood by the door, holding the roll of blueprints and tasting blood as he bit down on the inside of his cheek to hold himself back from saying anything more.

Barry looked up, and his eyes were resolute. “I’m not getting into this argument with you again, Joe,” he said. “I’m doing this because I want to, _not_ just because I don’t have a choice. Stop treating him like he’s forcing me to do something I don’t want to do!” He shrugged off Joe’s restraining hand and walked over to Len.

Damn. That felt _really_ good. The idea of everyone here thinking that Len was raping the kid was morbidly amusing until he’d actually been confronted by it. Then it had just made him feel sick. Joe looked both frustrated and startled, like it never even occurred to him that Barry might actually enjoy what Len had to offer.

The elevator doors opened and Len grabbed Barry around the waist, taking distinct pleasure in pulling him against his body under the eyes of three of his loved ones. “Don’t wait up for him,” he told the detective salaciously, just as the doors closed.

Barry sagged against him, head dropping to hit Len’s shoulder hard. “I’m sorry. God, I’m _so_ sorry. I didn’t know Joe was going to be here. That was not how I meant him to find out about us.”

“There’s no us,” Len reminded him gently, glancing up at the camera and smirking deliberately as he rubbed Barry’s back with his free hand. Fuck every single one of them. He wasn’t going to be driven off.

“Oh, yeah. Well, obviously. I-I just mean…” Barry trailed off. Maybe he didn’t know what he meant.

The elevator stopped and Len headed for his motorcycle, with Barry trailing after him like a lost puppy. But before he could get on, Barry touched his arm. “Wait,” he said. “Len… are you really angry?”

Len realized he was crumpling the blueprints in his fingers, and he relaxed his grip. “Your father’s an asshole.”

Barry’s jaw dropped. “No, he’s not!”

Len glared sidelong at Barry. “You’re an adult. He’s got no right to tell you what you can and can’t do, or to make you so afraid of what he thinks.”

The stunned look in Barry’s eyes annoyed him, and he turned away to secure the roll of papers to the back of his motorcycle for the trip. 

When Barry finally spoke up, it was in a gentle tone. “Len, Joe is not like Lewis.”

“I didn’t say he was.”

“…But you’re acting like it.”

Len looked up, frowning. Okay, maybe he was. “What was he shouting at you for, then? Why was he ordering you around like he owned you?”

For some reason, Barry was smiling at him. Why was he smiling at him when they were arguing? And why was he reaching— Barry cupped his cheeks and kissed him, sweetly, _right there in the open_. Len was too stunned by the move to reciprocate at first, and when Barry pulled away again, Len was left looking somewhat stupid with his hands up and out in an aborted move to hold him.

“Joe is worried about me. And yeah, he can be loud about it, and overreact, and drive me a little crazy when he does it. But he would never hurt me, Len. I swear - the only reason I’m concerned about what he thinks, is because I love him and I don’t want him to be hurt by my choices. It’s not because I’m afraid he’ll punish me or something like that. He’s never done that kind of thing, not once in my whole life.”

Len lowered his hands, scowling. It sounded downright idyllic, and Len believed Barry was telling the truth, though it was difficult for him to fathom. “How would he get hurt by _me_ having sex with _you_?”

“Well, for one thing, he’s probably not gonna sleep a wink tonight,” Barry said sheepishly. “He _is_ terrified that you’re going to hurt me - a lot more worried about me than you are right now. And… you have to admit, he has some reason to be concerned, given our history. Are you telling me you wouldn’t be acting the same way, if something like this was going on with Lisa?”

The earnest look in Barry’s eyes was impossible to deny. Len had to admit that - just possibly - he had overreacted. And he was starting to wonder why it mattered so much to him, anyway. 

“Fine,” he muttered. “I get it. Can we go, now?”

Barry grinned. “Sure, let’s go.”

~ ~ ~

Barry spent the next several hours bored out of his skull.

It seemed like Len had accepted that he didn’t need to be worried about Joe’s reaction, or concerned for Barry’s safety around Joe, and they had returned to the apartment over the abandoned store in a comfortable silence. Barry was happy to put the personal issues behind them and get started with planning.

However, “planning” turned out to involve Len spreading blueprints out on his table and then poring over them for hours in silence, except for all the muttering under his breath. Every time Barry approached him or asked a question, he got snapped at, and he wasn’t sure Len even remembered doing it ten seconds later. 

He wished he had just stayed at STAR Labs, except that would have been super awkward. He fidgeted and paced and finally turned on the television and discovered that Len had satellite. So he watched the History channel until Len suddenly rolled up the pages he’d been looking at and pulled out his cellphone.

“Mick, get Lisa down to the warehouse and meet us in ten. I have a job for us.”

That was it. That was the entire conversation. 

He slipped his cellphone away and walked over to Barry, who was glad to be distracted from a particularly rage-inducing episode of Ancient Aliens. “We’re going,” Len said, then frowned at the expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”

Barry yawned and pushed himself up to his feet. “Nothing. Should I change?”

“Definitely,” Len said, looking him up and down. Then he turned away and began packing up papers and his laptop.

Thank goodness. Finally something to do.

Barry flashed back to STAR Labs and changed into his Flash suit. In the blur, he saw that Joe wasn’t there and that Caitlin and Cisco had their heads down, working on their new equipment. They looked up belatedly as he left, and then he was on his way back to Len’s apartment, touching the contact for his communicator.

“Hey Cisco, you there?”

“Hey buddy. I thought that was you.” 

Barry winced at his tone - artificially cheerful. “I’m sorry for… all that, this morning, Cisco,” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean…”

“Hey, hey, forget it. I’ve got no room to criticize you for where you go to get your rocks off, yeah? I mean, look at me and Lisa. Not saying I’ve hit that, but _dude_.”

Barry grinned. “Thanks. Anyway, we’re meeting up with Heatwave and Golden Glider now. I’m not sure what happens from there, but it’s good to have you in my ear from here on out.”

“I put a couple of extra communicators in your suit’s pocket,” Cisco said. “Figured you’d need it. Before you go in, hand those out so we can all coordinate.”

Barry zipped inside and stopped in front of Len, sagging slightly with appreciation. “Cisco, you’re a genius.”

Len arched a brow. “What did Mr. Ramon do this time?”

“Thinking ahead,” Barry said with a grin, hunting in his pocket and pulling out three tiny communicators. He dropped them into Len’s open palm, and the older man examined one for a moment before fitting it into his right ear.

“Good. These’ll come in handy when we’re ready to go in - which isn’t just yet,” Len said. “Come on, Flash.”

They headed on Len’s bike across town to the docks. Barry sighed to see an abandoned warehouse he had probably passed by a dozen times without thinking about it. This area was rundown and crime-ridden, and apparently right in the middle of the worst of it was one of Len’s lairs. 

Len pulled the bike into the building and led Barry down a rickety staircase into a dimly-lit basement furnished like a bachelor’s messy apartment. A bachelor who had an obsession with mechanics. There were tools everywhere, and a half-dismantled car engine. Mick Rory stood over the engine with a blowtorch in his hand and dark goggles covering his eyes. Lisa reclined on a squashy leather sofa with a book in her hand.

At their arrival, Lisa looked up, her eyes widening in surprise. “Hey, look what the cat dragged in.”

Mick turned off the torch and pushed the goggles up onto his forehead. “Snart, there’s someone following you. Want I should torch him?”

“Ha ha,” Barry said, rolling his eyes.

“He’s with me,” Len drawled, walking into the middle of the room as if he owned the place - though Barry had a sneaking suspicion that this was actually Mick’s…dwelling. It would be too generous to call it a house. “We’re doing a job for the Flash. Lisa, I’ll need you to do some recon on the ground today if we can get ready in time. Mick and Flash and I will back you up while you go in.”

Lisa sat up, eyes widening. “Lenny?” Her eyes flicked to Barry and then back, then narrowed with curiosity. “Sure, I’ll do it. What’s the job?”

Barry strode forward. “There’s a company in the city kidnapping people and trying to turn them into metahumans. They already killed one person, and they have some kind of device that suppresses my speed.”

“Right,” Len said, turning to Barry and then back to his friends. “Flash needs a bit of a hand with this one, and I’ve decided _magnanimously_ to assist him. Here.” He tossed the earpieces to Lisa and Mick, who inspected them and then inserted them. “Now that we’re all in the same conference call, here’s what we’ll need. Ramon, pull up the CCTV around the place and feed it to my computer. And if you can, find any lists of employees or figure out who has been coming and going from NewWave. We need access.”

“Got it, Cold,” said Cisco over the radio. “Pulling up the CCTV feed now and running some facial recognition searches.” 

Len nodded and moved to a table, clearing a space and setting up his laptop. “Do you need my IP?”

“I already know the location of the Flash suit, so no,” Cisco said smugly. “Hooking you up now.”

“You want I should take someone coming outta there, Snart?” Mick asked, picking up his heat gun. “Bring them back here so we can have a chat?”

Barry hesitated at that, caught between a reflexive reaction that kidnapping and torture was _not_ on the menu, and wondering if maybe the kidnapping part would be acceptable just this once, given that they’d be kidnapping a murderer.

“It’s within the realm of possibility that we’ll go that route,” Len said, glancing searchingly at Barry. “What I’d rather do is have Lisa pose as a regular employee, or a visiting scientist. We just need to find the right mark.”

“We’ll do what we have to do,” Barry said quietly, and glanced at Mick. “But there’s every possibility that not all the people there know what’s going on. So I don’t want to hurt anyone unless we have to.”

Mick grunted and set his heat gun down, then turned back to his work. “Whatever you say.”

“Don’t worry, Flash,” Len purred. “I’m planning to play it your way this time.”

“Just tell me when and where,” Lisa said, smiling with anticipation. “It’ll be good to dust off my lab coat.”

“You have a lab coat?” Cisco asked eagerly.

“Focus, Cisco,” Len said, and bent over his laptop, peering at the screen.


	7. Chapter 7

Lisa knew what Lenny was like when he was _involved_ in planning a job, and he was definitely in that fugue state today. The Flash already looked a teeny bit harried when Len bent over his laptop and started muttering to himself, and she wondered how many hours - or days - of that behaviour he’d already been subjected to. 

It was strange, though. She hadn’t heard a peep of this coming down the pipeline. Len had been working on an entirely different heist at the Central City Art Gallery, for weeks, yet here he was suddenly dropping everything to work a job to _save_ people for the Flash.

She exchanged glances with Mick, who then turned his glower on Lenny. So she wasn’t the only one who thought this was a little out of character for her brother.

Len was absorbed with planning, and the Flash looked like he’d been left out in the cold, so Lisa rose and walked over to him. She slipped her arm around his and leaned up against his leather clad side. “Well, this is all very _exciting_ , isn’t it?” she chirped. 

The Flash stiffened at her touch, but didn’t push her away. He glanced at her with an awkward expression. “Er, what’s exciting exactly?”

“You and us, working together again,” she purred. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

Flash grimaced, then smiled sheepishly. Gosh, he did have such a cute face - what she could see of it under the mask, anyway. “Yeah, me neither. Uh, but hopefully it’ll work out better this time.”

“Mmm, I hope so.”

He glanced at her sidelong. “You really didn’t know, huh?”

“Not a hint! How long have you been working on this?” Lisa asked.

“Uhh, since late yesterday night.”

Lisa stilled. “Really?” She looked over at Lenny, baffled. Why was he so committed to this? “Huh, you must have promised him something big.”

The Flash went as red as his suit. “I don’t think it’s _that_ big…”

And it clicked. 

Though Lenny didn’t like talking about it, Lisa had a pretty good idea of just where his wandering eye liked to land. There were lots of very _logical_ and _practical_ reasons why Lenny might want to keep a close eye on the Flash, and find out who he really was, and generally stalk him all day long. But Lisa wasn’t fooled.

“Oh… I bet it _is_ a nice size, though,” she teased, and watched his face turn even redder.

“Lisa,” Len snapped, turning around. “C’mere.”

Ah well, fun time was over. She grinned wickedly at the mortified young superhero and then released him, sashaying over to Lenny and leaning on the table to peer at the laptop screen. It showed a somewhat grainy photo of a blond woman in the parking lot of a building. As she watched, the “photo” began to move, the video depicting the woman getting out of her car, straightening her labcoat and then scurrying into the building. Len rewound the video and played it a couple more times.

“What do you think?” Len asked. 

“Some makeup and a wig. Not a problem, so long as no one looks too closely at me,” Lisa said, straightening up. 

“Good. She entered the building this morning for what looks like a regular shift. You go with Mick and get her. He can keep her contained, while you go in. Pretend you forgot something and poke around.”

“What’s ‘contained’ mean?” the Flash and Mick both asked, almost simultaneously, though in entirely different tones of voice. Len chuckled.

“It means that you keep her safe and don’t let her leave until the operation’s over. No play time with the heat gun, _Mick_. I’ll question her, and if she’s got involvement with the illegal metahuman making activities, we’ll turn her over to the proper authorities when we’re done. Happy?”

“Really?” Flash asked, startled. Mick grunted with disappointment.

“You heard me,” Lenny said, and turned back to Lisa expectantly.

She knew what he was asking without him needing to say a word. “What am I looking for?” she asked.

Len closed his laptop. “We don’t know where the prisoners are being kept, and there’s _nothing_ about a particle accelerator in the official city plans, so we need to know where that is, too. I’m pretty sure something like that would be hard to keep hidden.” He glanced at the Flash, as if for confirmation, and the young speedster nodded.

“Yeah, I mean, to work up enough momentum for a particle accelerator to work the way it does, particularly to create the kind of radiation that caused metahumans, it would need to be just as big as the one at STAR Labs,” he said.

Len looked at Lisa. “Just learn whatever you can. We’re also looking for something that could lay down a suppression field that would cancel out the Flash’s speed.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “What the heck would something like _that_ look like?”

Lenny and the Flash exchanged uncertain glances. “I have no idea,” the Flash admitted.

“And neither do we,” Cisco said in her ear. “I’ve got some theories about how something like that could be done, but I haven’t invented a device like that yet - why would I? - so basically since I’m a frickin’ genius and work with the Flash every day, I thought that meant _no one_ had created it. Buuuut, apparently someone did. So _that_ sucks.”

“Thanks, Cisco, darling,” Lisa said ironically. So she had to get into a building pretending to be an employee, hope no one made her in the first ten seconds, and then look around for anything she could learn and get out before anyone realized she wasn’t who she claimed to be. _Great plan, Lenny._

“Sorry, sis,” Len said in an undertone. “No time for our usual finesse.”

Lisa sighed and rolled her eyes. It was impossible to stay mad when he was actually being sweet for once. “No problem, bro. Though I’d have _thought_ you’d want to keep things going as long as possible.” 

He blinked, then grinned - and _wow_ , Lenny actually looked a bit sheepish. “You figured it out?”

“Oh _please_.” She walked away and gestured to Mick, who put away his tools and picked up his heat gun with an air of anticipation. “Come on, Mick. Let’s get rolling. We’ll swing by my place so I can get dolled up.”

“You’ve got two hours to get ready,” Len called after them. “She’ll probably come out of the building around five, and you’ll need to be in position by then.”

Lisa waved her acknowledgement of that as she walked out the door, Mick in tow.

~ ~ ~

The moment his sister left with Mick, Len looked at Barry, who looked hot as hell as usual in red leather. “Take your cowl off. We’ve got at least an hour and a half to kill.”

“Um?” Barry blinked slowly, then reached up to do as he was told, pulling the mask off and setting it aside.

“Hey, are you two seriously gonna bone—” Cisco began, but Len pulled the communicator out of his ear and dropped it onto the table. Then he backed up and dropped onto the sofa, giving Barry his best come-hither expression.

Barry stared at him for a full ten seconds, which Len suspected was actually pretty long for a speedster. “You sure you want to… okay. Yes, you’re sure,” he said with a put-upon sigh. 

Truly, was it such a burden? Besides, why was Barry acting like he knew what Len was going to do? At what point had Len given Barry a reason to believe that he was a horndog who would fuck him at any opportunity?

Okay, maybe he was giving him that impression right now. He didn’t regret it one bit.

Barry crossed the room and made to sit on the sofa next to Len, who grabbed him around the waist and pulled him sideways into his lap. Barry yelped at the move and settled onto him, slipping his arms around Len’s neck to steady himself. 

Len ran a possessive hand up Barry’s leg from his knee to his upper thigh, voicing a soft hum of pleasure. Barry squirmed, which was _very_ nice, and tucked his head against Len’s neck. “Uhhh, just so you know,” he whispered. “Cisco might not be able to hear what we say if we’re not wearing the communicators, but he will be getting constant data about my biological state. Um, like my heart rate and breathing and stuff.”

“I hope he enjoys watching, then,” Len purred, and cupped Barry’s groin, making slow circles with the heel of his hand. “Because you’re not taking off that suit.”

“Oh.” Barry breathed the word out on a puff of air, and then closed his eyes, drawing in a shuddering breath. He swallowed audibly as Len undid the zipper over his groin and slipped a hand inside. “Okay. I take back everything good I ever said about you. You’re _evil_.”

“Guilty,” Len purred. 

Despite his half-hearted protests, Barry didn’t actually seem to mind. He shifted up, lips seeking Len’s. Len explored Barry’s mouth with his tongue and explored his cock with his fingers, drawing it out of the confining leather of the suit and stroking it slowly. 

Barry really didn’t take long to get hard. Within two or three strokes of Len’s hand, he was already stiff and rigid under his fingers, and Barry was making the most _fetching_ little whimpering noises into Len’s mouth.

They kissed for long minutes, while Len teasingly stroked Barry’s cock. When Barry was good and relaxed and hopefully not feeling quite so worried about Cisco and Caitlin seeing what he was up to, Len laid him down on Mick’s sofa and pressed his knees apart. He looked perfect, half-wrecked; his hair mussed from the cowl and his lips reddened from kissing, cock jutting proudly towards that ridiculous circle with the lightning bolt through it, every curve and plane of his body highlighted in red leather.

“You’re gorgeous, Barry,” Len murmured, and licked his lips.

Barry looked up at him, blushing shyly. “You…you are, too.”

Len smiled and bent down, taking Barry’s cock between his lips.

Barry groaned and tilted his head against the cushions, his back arching to leave the sofa as Len began to bob his head up and down, sucking on his prick. He would gladly do this every day of his goddamn life, so long as Barry kept on reacting with such _naked_ and obvious desire.

It was downright addicting. Too bad it wasn’t meant to be.

But moments like this would fuel him for a long time to come. Len settled onto his elbows and deep-throated Barry’s cock once, twice, three times. Barry yelled and writhed and then _screamed_ , and this time he had nothing to use to muffle the sound as hot fluids shot straight and down Len’s throat.

Smug as hell, Len shifted and sat up and wiped saliva from his bottom lip. He opened his mouth to say something, and Barry _attacked_ , crushing their mouths together in a heartfelt and eager kiss. 

Len hummed again and settled back into the sofa, their tongues tangling together as Barry tossed his gloves aside. Busy hands opened his fly and drew him out. Len gave an encouraging moan at the warm hands on his cock, and Barry broke the kiss, breathless and flushed from the orgasm. “I…I want to do you. I want to suck you off.”

“Go ahead,” Len said, with a magnanimous smile. Really, did Barry think he could - or would - deny such a sweet request? 

Len wasn’t sure he’d truly deny Barry anything anymore, to be quite honest. Not if he got to keep seeing the kid look at him that way - like Len had just granted him the biggest gift. Especially since that gift was the chance to suck his cock. Barry broke into a shy, sweet, _bright_ grin, and slid off the sofa onto his knees.

Barry didn’t have the most practiced mouth in the world, Len had to admit. He was tentative at first, fingers still curled around the shaft of Len’s cock and his tongue swirling and licking over the head for a few moments before taking a couple of inches into his mouth. But as Len gave another encouraging moan and combed his fingers lightly through Barry’s hair, the young man’s confidence grew. He began to bob his head up and down, taking more and more of Len’s cock into his mouth.

His cheeks hollowed and the suction sent shocks of pleasure through Len’s body. Len groaned deeply, and let his head fall back against the cushion, looking up at the ceiling and thanking fate that Barry Allen had been idiotic enough to give him a second chance. 

Even if this whole thing blew up in all of their faces, Len couldn’t regret a single moment.

The waves of pleasure mounted and crested and finally Len’s fingers tightened in Barry’s hair in warning. He gasped, arching his back as the orgasm hit, and ecstasy crashed over him. Barry moaned and swallowed him down like a champ, but Len scarcely noticed, shuddering and panting in the wake of the intense sensations.

He realized a moment later that Barry had slid back into his lap and put his arms around him. They were both sheened with sweat and Len was breathless. He kissed the younger man, and tasted his own seed on Barry’s lips.

“You did good,” Len whispered, arms cinched tight around Barry. They still had thirty minutes, minimum, before they had to get back to work. He intended to luxuriate in cuddles for that entire time.

Barry grinned against his neck and made a soft, sheepish noise. “I… like the way you look when you come,” he whispered, like he was imparting a great, shameful secret.

Len smiled. “Day two,” he murmured. “We’ve still got time for you to see it again.”

Then, Barry’s cellphone began to ring. Len cursed under his breath as Barry scrabbled for it in the hidden pocket of his suit, and dragged it out. He winced visibly when he looked at the screen, and brought it up to his ear. “H-hey, Joe, what’s up?”

Len grimaced. Then Barry’s face dropped, the expression draining out of his face. 

“Okay, yeah. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Barry lowered the phone and looked at Len. “There’s been another murder.”

Len had been expecting something like this. The timing was perfect. “Then there’s something I’m going to need you to steal from the CCPD.”


	8. Chapter 8

Barry experienced a feeling of surreality upon arriving at the crime scene, knowing that he had just left a Rogues’ hideout (and his Flash suit was _stored_ there) and with marching orders coming from Captain Cold. Somewhere in the city, Heat Wave and Golden Glider were plotting the kidnapping of a possibly-though-probably-not-innocent woman, and Barry didn’t intend to do a thing about it.

Instead, he planned on stealing evidence from a crime scene.

_What is my life coming to?_

He arrived at the latest dump site - this time, it was at the literal city dump. Joe was waiting for him at the entrance, well away from the buzzing of flies and ripe stench that Barry knew was ahead of them. 

The look that Joe gave him as Barry approached told him that his father was by no means over the revelations and arguments that happened earlier that morning. It was a searching expression, eyes shuttered, and Barry felt himself beginning to blush. 

“How are you, Barr?” Joe asked, voice low.

“Great!” Barry said, and heard his own voice rise with almost hysterical cheerfulness. He swallowed, and tried again. “Uh, everything’s good, Joe. Sn—” He paused and looked around, nervous someone might overhear them. “Leonard’s got a plan already and, uh, the first phase of it is going down later today.”

Joe frowned. “ _’Leonard_ ’s’ plan wouldn’t involve any other friends of his, would it?”

“Er…yes. Yes it would,” Barry said awkwardly, brushing past his adopted father and looking for the tell-tale yellow tape that signified a crime scene. 

Joe grabbed his arm. “Barry, I just don’t want you to get hurt again. And I don’t--” He stopped, and his eyes flicked away, focusing on some bit of crumpled up miscellaneous garbage on the ground. “I’m concerned that after this morning, and all the history here, that you aren’t able to be fully honest with me.”

Barry stopped, and swallowed. Joe thought that Barry wouldn’t be honest? He looked up. “Joe, I understand that you’re worried and you have a good reason to be. I know you don’t want things to go bad like last time - neither do I! I promise you, if things were going sideways, I _would_ tell you.”

A tightness eased around Joe’s eyes and mouth, and he nodded. “Thank you, Barr. That’s all I needed to hear.”

Barry doubted it. He probably needed to hear something like ‘actually I decided not to do this and also I arrested Leonard Snart and threw him back in Iron Heights’. But Barry appreciated that Joe was trying.

“Come on,” Joe said softly, leading Barry along the winding roadway deeper into the landfill. “A sanitation worker uncovered the bodies a couple of hours ago and called it in.”

Barry was so preoccupied by the situation between Joe and Len that it took him a second. “Wait— bodies? There’s more than one?”

They rounded a mound of crushed cars, and there Barry saw the first hint of yellow tape, wound around the stacked vehicles. Joe lifted the tape and Barry slipped between two stacks, and saw a large pile of unsorted garbage, some inside and some spilling out of bags. It looked as though there had recently been a shift - a sort of garbage avalanche - and there in the middle of the pile was a hand sticking out from between two black plastic bags. 

The more Barry looked, the more he saw. There were at least five bodies, all half submerged in trash. Once he was able to look past the initial confusing profusion of different shapes and colours, he spotted a leg here, and a head there. They were difficult to identify as human, as each body was misshapen - bloated from putrefaction, but not just that. Here there was a hand that had hardened and formed into a sort of five-pincered claw. There was a head sticking out that had swollen to three times the size of a normal human skull, the skin stretched tight like a drum and the nose almost flattened from the pressure.

“Oh my god, Joe, this is awful,” Barry said, stepping closer and digging out his camera. “These bodies have been dead a lot longer than the one yesterday.”

“I know,” Joe said seriously, bending over the torso of a young woman whose legs were still buried in trash. Her head lolled forward to rest against an old broken radio, matted dark hair half-obscuring her face, which had sprouted a profusion of hair and teeth. “I don’t get it. These people have clearly been dead for days, or longer. But the equipment was only stolen yesterday.”

“So how could they make metahumans days ago? Even messed up ones like this,” Barry said in an undertone. He crouched down, and began processing the woman, gathering samples from her skin and under her fingernails, taking photographs of her positioning and closer photos of the mutations. He collected blowfly larvae, so they could use the insects to try to determine how long ago she was dumped.

“You think Cisco might have an idea?” Joe asked. 

Barry shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll come up with something,” he said, and then sighed. “This is going to take me a lot longer than I thought.”

He pulled off his glove and dug in his pocket for his cellphone. Joe frowned at him, but didn’t object, falling silent as Barry hit the speed dial on a brand new contact in his phone he hadn’t put in there.

Len answered after one ring. “What is it, Barry?”

“Hey, uh, I’m gonna be a while,” Barry said. “There are five bodies, and I’ve got to process a tonne of evidence. I just wanted to let you know I’m going to be longer than I expected.”

Len was silent a moment. “It’s nearly five o’clock. I’ll be…busy for a while anyway. Come back to my place at the shop when you’re done, and bring what we discussed. When Lisa’s done her part, I’ll head over there and wait for you if you’re not back yet.”

Barry swallowed, aware of Joe’s eyes on him. His father was close enough that he could probably overhear quite a bit of what Len had said. At least Joe didn’t _know_ that when Len mentioned being busy, he was referring to kidnapping and interrogating someone with Mick Rory. 

“Got it. See you then.” He cut the call and slipped the phone away, then pulled on a new set of nitrile gloves to continue processing the evidence.

Joe didn’t comment on the conversation, allowing himself to be drawn away to consult with Captain Singh on the investigation, but Barry could still feel Joe’s concerned gaze even from a distance.

~ ~ ~

Mick hated stakeouts.

It was boring. Just. Sitting somewhere. Watching things. 

Leonard Snart had that kind of patience. He could sit in a diner for actual _hours_ , drinking coffee and just watching people. He would have a notebook with him, and write down all kinds of numbers and phrases that meant something only to him, and then suddenly a few days later he’d have this complex plan all laid out down to the second.

Mick had always liked that about Len - the fact that he made good plans, and Mick didn’t have to bother doing it himself. But he couldn’t understand how he did it.

Like right now. He and Lisa had been crouched behind a line of bushes outside of a building near NewWave for nearly an hour, and he was going to lose his mind. Every time the massive gate in front of the building opened, his heart rate picked up and he gripped the handle of his heat gun a little tighter, even though he _knew_ he wasn’t allowed to burn anything yet. But every time, the car that emerged from the parking lot had some dude in it, or some black lady, or something else that _wasn’t_ the chick he was looking for.

“Hey big guy,” Lisa murmured after the fifth time it happened. She laid a hand on his arm, which he could barely feel between the fabric of his shirt and the scarring. “Cool it.”

“Cold puns are your _brother’s_ thing,” he growled, but she grinned, and so did he. 

And then a car he recognized drove out of the lot and turned down the street. He recognized the lady driving it, too. Their mark.

They exchanged glances, and then hurried back to Lisa’s bike. Lisa straddled it, and waited for Mick to get settled behind her. He gripped her by the waist as they rode out of the parking lot and followed the woman’s car for several blocks, staying well back. Len had been clear - follow the car and wait for an opportunity to take her when they were definitely not going to be seen by any other NewWave employees. 

She didn’t seem to even notice them, driving at a moderate pace through Central City rushhour traffic and finally pulling onto a quiet street in a residential neighbourhood. When she stopped at a stop sign, Mick saw the opportunity, and so did Lisa. She gunned the engine, passing the car and then turning her bike sharply to the side, coming to a stop immediately in front of the car.

The woman rolled down her window. “Hey! What are you doing? Get out of the way!”

Mick jumped off the bike almost before it came to a stop, and darted at top speed over to the driver’s side of the car. He stuck his heat gun in the woman’s face before she had a chance to react. “Take your hands off the wheel. Get out of the car.”

The woman screamed and put her hands up, trembling with fear. “Please! Oh god, please! Don’t hurt me! I-I have money in my purse.”

If he had a nickle for every time he’d heard that line…

“I said, get out of the car, lady. Leave the purse.”

He stood back and watched her closely as she stepped out of the car, wobbly from the way her knees trembled. Lisa joined him, her own gun at her side and a set of zip ties in her hand. While Mick held the woman at gunpoint, Lisa efficiently strapped her hands behind her back and stuffed her in the back of her own car. 

Then Lisa got back onto her motorcycle, and Mick got into the car. He rooted through the woman’s purse one-handed as he drove to the pre-arranged meetup site - far from any of the hideout locations the Flash would have seen. They hadn’t wanted the Flash to get cute and try to interfere, if he got cold feet - as Len had put it. Besides, they usually didn’t bring hostages to places they’d ever go to again. It was a policy.

So he listened to the woman whimper softly while he stole her gum and popped a stick into his mouth. Cinnamon. He couldn’t resist.

“Wh-what do you want from me?” she asked as he parked the car outside a rundown warehouse at the outskirts of town. Probably gonna try to appeal to his better nature. Good thing he didn’t have one of those. Besides, she was totally a murderer herself, right? That was what the Flash had thought, anyway.

“Nothin’,” he growled. “Just wanted your gum.”

The back door opened and Lisa smiled at her. “And your clothes,” she said brightly. “Come on, I think you and I have the same shoe size.”

“N-no! Please!” Lisa hauled the woman out and marched her into the warehouse. Mick followed, pocketing her keys and carrying her purse.

Fifteen minutes later, the woman was tied to a chair and wrapped in a blanket, shivering. Lisa was dressed in her grey slacks and blouse, and putting the finishing touches on her wig. 

Mick’s phone buzzed and he glanced at it. Len was almost here - time to soften her up.

He went to one knee next to her. “Hey,” he murmured. He held up her security badge, salvaged from her purse. “Your name is Vanessa, right? Nice name.”

Vanessa’s eyes flicked towards him. They were doing that scared thing where they went all wide so he could see the whites all around them. She nodded, biting her lip. “Um, thank you?”

“Tell me.” He lit a match. “You like fire, Vanessa?”

Five minutes later, the door opened and Len walked in, decked out as usual when on a job in his favourite parka and goggles.

“We’re on track. Looking good, sis,” he complimented Lisa, who was peering into a hand mirror and adjusting the blond tresses critically.

“I’m ready,” she said, setting down the mirror. Mick got up and handed her the purse and security badge. She clipped the badge onto her blouse, and slipped the purse over her arm, completing the look.

Vanessa looked at the three of them, her eyes wide, still nearly hyperventilating from the things Mick had been explaining to her. “What…what are you doing? What is going on here?”

Len planted himself in front of her and loomed. “My sister’s gonna pretend to be you, and go into your workplace now, while you stay here. And while we’re waiting for her to learn what she can, you’re going to tell us _everything_ about what your bosses have been doing. Everything about the tests and about the dead bodies that have been coming out of that place.” Her eyes widened with horror. Len went on, his voice cold as ice and rich with anticipation. “You’re gonna tell us what we want to know, even if my friend here has to hurt you to make you talk.”

Mick spoke up, caressing his heat gun lovingly. “And then when you’re done spilling your guts, we’re all gonna go and be _heroes_.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Can you hear me okay, Lisa?” Cisco’s voice was tentative, almost shy, though she could tell he was trying for professional. Her communicator was completely hidden by the fall of blonde wig hair as she drove Vanessa’s stolen car through the massive gate and into the walled compound of NewWave.

“I can hear you, Cisco,” she said. Though he might have expected otherwise, she intended to be professional during this run. “So since I’ve got you on the line, tell me - what’re you wearing?” Mostly professional.

She intended to occupy Cisco’s attention for now so he wouldn’t have time to worry about what Lenny and Mick were doing. That was intentional - they didn’t intend to break the deal with the Flash, but it was _possible_ the Rogues would be toeing the line here. If not stomping on the spirit of the deal. Flash was apparently busy for the next few hours, but they didn’t want the STAR Labs kids to get squeamish if they heard a little screaming and crying over the comms.

It wasn’t like Vanessa was going to get _hurt_ , really, but Lenny and Mick knew how to be scary enough to make almost anyone spill the beans. And it _was_ all for a good cause, after all.

Besides, she probably deserved a little pain. Lisa had seen the autopsy photos of that woman who’d been found at the beach yesterday. Shudder.

Cisco finished sputtering as she got out of the car, trying to imitate her mark’s walk in those sensible mary janes. Seriously, Vanessa was pretty - she should be strutting, not mincing around. 

But Vanessa apparently didn’t know how to work that slender body and blonde hair, so Lisa minced.

“Let’s please stay on task, Golden Glider,” Cisco said with an admirable - but unconvincing - attempt at sternness. 

“Yes, honey,” she purred, head down to watch her own feet as she walked across the parking lot towards the front doors, so as to obscure the movement of her mouth. “Now, cut the chatter. I’m heading in.” From now, of course, she was going to have to watch what she said.

“Copy that,” Cisco said, and she had to hide a smile.

As she walked, she narrated what she saw in short, terse bursts of speech. “Patrol coming around the front. Five guards. I’m going in. Doors are glass. Might be bullet-proof.” She opened the front door and stepped inside. “Lobby. Guard station ahead. Two guards.”

She lifted her head and flashed a shy smile at the guards. One of them was watching a bank of monitors hidden behind the desk. The other held out a hand to stop her, and rose until he could peer at her ID, then glanced at a clipboard. “Vanessa Crane? You’re day shift.”

“Yes, but.” Lisa winced and brought a blush to her cheeks. “I forgot my housekeys inside. I won’t be long.” Without waiting for the guard’s reaction, she turned away and started towards the elevators.

A hand closed around her arm. “Just wait a moment. Let me see your ID again.”

She froze and turned to look up at the forbidding expression of the guard. He was bigger than Mick - okay, maybe not _quite_ , but Lisa’s heart was pounding anyway.

Lenny’s plan _sucked_.

She summoned a sheepish smile. “O-oh? Of course,” she tittered, and unclipped her ID card from her blouse, holding it up.

“Lisa, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” Cisco hissed in her ear, but she had no choice but to ignore him. She beamed brightly at the guard, who peered at the ID for an extraordinarily long time, and looked at her face again.

“Is something wrong?”

“Can’t be too careful,” the guard said, and passed her the ID. “Go on.”

She took the card and walked towards the bank of elevators, the back of her neck itching. Had it worked? 

“Lisa?” 

She glanced over her shoulder. The guard had stepped out from behind his desk and was standing directly between her and the door, watching her. 

“I think I’m made,” she whispered. 

“Damn,” Cisco cursed. “Look, Lisa, just act natural. We’ll get you out of this.”

His sweet concern - even if he had no clue what he was talking about - warmed her heart. She smiled, but then the elevator doors opened and the smile immediately froze. Three armed guards stood inside the elevator, pointing guns at her. “I’m fucked,” she said, raising her hands. “Sorry.”

“Take her down with the others,” one of the guards ordered, as another one grabbed her arms and wrenched them painfully behind her back. 

In her ear, Cisco gasped and called out. “Lisa? Lisa what’s happening? Are you okay?”

The elevator began to descend, and Lisa said nothing. They went down, and down, until suddenly the earpiece began to squeal painfully with static, and she yelped in surprise. One of the guards heard the noise and wrenched the device out of her ear, then crushed it under his boot, cutting off Cisco’s voice forever.

_Lenny, I seriously hate your plan. I hope Flash booty was worth it._

~ ~ ~

Even Flash speed didn’t change the fact that it took a long time to process the evidence for five murder victims. Central City wasn’t Gotham - they had a fairly small police force, not a lot of crime in the grand scheme of things - so usually, Barry could keep on top of things even without his speed. Today, though, even he was buried. And a lot of the tests simply took a minimum amount of time to complete. He could only hurry things along so much.

It took over an hour just to collect the samples. By the time he got back to the precinct, the sun was starting to set, and he was still facing down what seemed to be an insurmountable mountain of work. His phone rang and nearly fumbled it when he saw Len’s contact pop up on his phone. Thank goodness, some good news about progress on the case would be welcome.

“Hey,” he said, bringing the phone to his ear. “How did it go?”

“Lisa was taken.”

Hearing that was like getting a glass of cold water dumped over his head. Barry went cold all over instantly. Len’s voice was like nothing he had ever heard from Captain Cold. Not even when facing down Lewis had Len sounded so desperate and filled with rage. His voice _shook_. 

“Oh god,” Barry groaned. He drew a breath and let it out. “We’ll get her back, Len. I _swear_. Where are we at? Did we learn anything from the—”

“We’re going in,” Len said. “I’m not letting her die horribly like those other saps. Get to Mick’s place right now.”

“Len, hang on a sec. I know you’re scared…” Barry was talking to dead air. Len had already hung up.

He cursed and looked at the boxes of sample bottles and bags on his desk, and the pile of paperwork he had to do. But he knew that Len was scared for Lisa, and he had good reason to be. 

He couldn’t let Len run off half-cocked and get caught or hurt as well. The work would just have to wait.

No sooner had he made his decision, but he sped off towards the warehouse. He arrived in minutes, and didn’t slow down before he had changed into his Flash suit. Mick and Len were already there, Len pacing in slow motion as Barry blurred around the room, picked up the suit and put it on, then set his neatly-folded clothing onto one of the few clear flat surfaces in the room.

When he came to a stop, Mick and Len were still in the process of realizing he had arrived. Mick was checking the charge on his head gun and had his goggles on his forehead. He looked downright gleeful. 

Len looked less excited, and more determined. “Good, you’re here. Do you have those photos?”

“What’s the plan?” Barry asked. He _did_ have an envelope with the crime scene photos Len had requested he steal in it, which he handed to Len.

“We’re going in and _burning_ them all!” Mick growled, teeth bared in a feral grin.

Len opened the envelope and thumbed through the photographs. He looked at Barry. “What he said. We’ll find Lisa, find the prisoners, and get out. They won’t know what hit them.” He stuffed the envelope into the inside pocket of his parka and picked up his cold gun, then strapped it to his thigh.

“Len,” Barry exclaimed. “This is crazy. They have guns, and body armour.”

Len tapped the grip of his cold gun. “And we’ve got these. And hey, Lisa’s not using hers right now.” Len picked up another large weapon - Lisa’s - and handed it to Mick, who stowed it inside his coat along with his heat gun. “They won’t be prepared for our weapons. We’ll hit them hard before they can turn my sister into a freak, and when you get your speed back, Lisa can have her gold gun back. Let’s go.” 

The two Rogues started for the door, and Barry trailed after them unhappily.

“How are we even going to get into the compound?” Barry argued as they reached street level. “They’re not just going to open up the gate for us.”

“Yes they will,” Len said, pulling his goggles up to cover his eyes as he straddled his motorcycle. “This morning while you were eating breakfast, I made contact with the woman who runs the place. I arranged for Mick to do some work for her, as a sub contractor, at a very competitive rate.”

Barry’s jaw dropped. “You did _what_?” Len _had_ disappeared for a while while he was eating pancakes. He’d thought he was just showering, but there had been time for him to make a phone call.

“I brought her some homeless guy,” Mick said matter-of-factly, straddling his own massive bike. “He smelled like fish.”

“ _The fuck_?!”

“Good thing, too,” Len growled. “Because it gave me the in we need. I was going to use it to get into the compound when we were ready. But it’ll work now. I’ve arranged a meet-up with her to discuss further contract work. Meet us outside the gate, and I’ll get us inside.”

He started the motorcycle and both he and Mick sped off before Barry could even begin to explain to him all the ways in which this was very, very _wrong_.

Barry touched his communicator. “Cisco, did you get all that?” He felt like he’d been punched in the gut. 

“Yeah, buddy,” Cisco said soberly. “Everything’s gone to hell, and Snart’s gone all squirrelly since Lisa got caught. I made them tell me where the woman they kidnapped was, and Caitlin’s on her way to go watch her while you go in there.” He paused, and drew an audible breath. “But you’ve got to admit, Barry…it just might be the only way - and it could even work just fine. If you all don’t get killed when shit goes down, anyway.”

Barry drew in a breath and let it out, trying to think. He knew when he decided to do this that Len’s methods weren’t going to be quite the same as what he was used to. It wasn’t exactly the sort of plan he would have endorsed if he knew about it - kidnapping an innocent man, for example, even to get in good with their enemy. But it had only been a few hours. The man - and Lisa - were probably okay. For now.

He was just going to have to go with the plan, and chew Len out for it later. 

“Yeah, it might work,” he said. “And I don’t feel like we have any choice right now. Len knows what he’s doing, and at least we can get into the compound before they hurt anyone else. We’ll just have to do our best to take out the guards before they realize what hit them.”

“You can do this, Barr,” Cisco said. “And hey, you know I’ve got your back.”

 _Can I do this even without my speed?_ Barry thought, swallowing hard. He couldn’t dwell on that. He’d have Lisa’s special gun to defend himself, and Mick and Len had both proved amply in the past that they could take out normal guards no problem. And frankly, there was no dissuading Len. He was going in whether Barry was there or not - Barry needed to be there to help.

So he gathered himself, and sped off towards NewWave, passing Len and Mick within seconds, and arriving a few minutes later outside the compound. He paused behind a line of bushes, and crouched down out of sight, waiting for Len and Mick to arrive.

When they rolled up in their motorcycles, Len dismounted and pulled out his phone. With one hand, he gestured to Barry, who stood up and walked towards him, looking uncertainly up towards the cameras. Floodlights were aimed towards the street, lighting up the area covered by the cameras. Was it really a good idea for him to be seen with them before they sprang their trap? 

Mick dismounted from the motorcycle and caught him by the arm. 

“Wait, what’s happening?” Barry whispered to the other man, while Len talked in low tones into his cellphone. With a clank and a grinding sound, the gate began to slide open. 

“Just go with it, Speedy,” Mick growled.

Barry waited, vibrating slightly. Mick tightened his grip, and Barry drew a breath, struggling to calm down. Once they were inside, it would begin. He wished Len had given him a weapon to start with, but the plan did make sense. He was supposed to pretend to be captured, and then once they were inside, Mick would give him Lisa’s gun and they’d all start shooting.

Maybe he’d just aim for the guns of the guards, and maybe their feet. He didn’t want to accidentally kill anyone.

Actually, that was a thought. “Don’t kill anyone, okay Mick?” he hissed. “The police can deal with them.”

“Uh huh,” Mick said. Barry wasn’t sure he was listening.

Len hung up the phone. “Let’s go.”

Barry walked at Mick’s side, with the big man still holding him tight by the arm like he was worried the Flash was going to try to escape. He knew if he was inclined to, he _could_ have vibrated right out of his grip, but then they stepped over the threshold and he felt the speed force drain out of him. He shuddered. 

Len glanced at him, brows pinched. “Is it happening?” he hissed. Barry nodded. A phalanx of guards walked towards them, and he saw the woman from before, striding across the parking lot in their direction.

Len stepped out in front of the two of them, swaggering towards the woman in charge of NewWave as he tugged his goggles down around his neck. “See? I told you I could get him to you.”

She smiled, like a shark, and her eyes swept covetously over Barry, then flicked to Mick and Len’s faces. “Yes, I can hardly believe it. You really are good.” She jerked her head, and two guards stepped forward. “Come with me to my office. I’ve got the money I promised you.”

“You’d better not be thinking you’re going to write me a cheque,” Len said, walking up towards her. “I told you I only deal in cash.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is all off the books.”

“And there’s been a bit of a change,” Len went on, more seriously, and offered her his arm. “We’re going to need to enter into another contract, regarding one of the prisoners you’ve taken.”

The woman took Len’s arm, and smiled at him. “Oh, I’m sure we can make another deal.” 

Len smiled back. 

Barry stared at Len’s profile, a mixture of horrified emotions washing over him. “Len? What are you doing?”

Len glanced back at Barry, watching with cool eyes as the guards took Barry from Mick and secured his arms together behind his back with zip ties. “I’m following my new plan, Flash, and making a hundred grand while doing it.”

“Fifty each,” Mick said with deep satisfaction. “Easiest money we’ve made in a while.”

The guards shoved Barry forward, and they all walked towards the building. Behind them, the gate closed with chilling finality.


	10. Chapter 10

Barry’s stomach churned as he was pulled into the lobby of NewWave, which was dominated by a large security desk manned by two uniformed guards. Len walked up ahead of him, striding like a king into his castle, accompanied by his queen clasping his arm. 

Captain Cold glanced at Heat Wave. “Stay here, partner. We won’t be long.”

Then his eyes flicked in Barry’s direction, coolly triumphant, and spoke. “Sorry, Flash. Just business.”

Barry felt a hot surge of anger slam through his body.

“How can you do this, Snart?” he shouted, struggling against the grip of the guards, consumed by the insane desire to throw himself bodily at Len and beat him to a pulp. “How _could_ you?”

“Like I said,” Len said, turning away and gesturing to his escort. “It’s just business. Lead the way, Dr. Garcia.”

Mick leaned against the security desk casually to wait, and Len and his escort stepped into the elevator. Len turned around to face him when he got into the elevator up ahead, that creepy woman still hanging on his arm like he was the sexiest man alive. He looked so smug.

Yeah, well, he probably _should_ be smug. He had pulled one over on Barry. Again.

Which apparently wasn’t that hard, because Barry was so very stupid. _So. Stupid. Barry._

He was so furious he wanted to punch that smirking face right in the mouth. And so miserable he wanted to cry. A couple of hours ago, he’d been on his knees, sucking that man’s cock, thinking about maybe wanting to continue this whole thing. Thinking that Len really _liked_ him. Thinking that this didn’t have to be just a price to be paid for a service Len was doing for him, but that it meant something _more_.

And it had all been a lie. Len had barely finished having sex with him for the first time before he was thinking about how to betray him and turn a profit. Maybe he even started thinking about it in the bar, maybe before they had even made their deal. Maybe it was all Len thought about.

The doors closed, cutting off his view of Len, and the guards began to lead him towards the elevator. Barry walked obediently, his heart sinking lower and lower.

“Hey buddy?” Cisco’s voice spoke in his ear. “I know you probably can’t say anything, but I’ve called Caitlin and I’m trying to get hold of Firestorm. We’re gonna get you out of this, I promise. Even if I have to get the Arrow involved, you’re gonna be okay.” 

Tears filled Barry’s eyes. At least Cisco still had his back. He sniffled softly, head hanging down and his eyes squeezed shut to hold them back. No way did he want Mick Rory or these guards to know he was crying. 

The elevator doors opened again and Barry walked with two guards into the tiny space. The rest of the guards headed off in another direction, apparently satisfied that the Flash was cowed and wasn’t going to escape. They were probably right. What could he do? Without the speed force, he couldn’t fight these guys with their body armour and combat skills. He was getting better, with Oliver’s help and the other training he’d done, but his skills didn’t lie in straight martial arts.

One of the guards swiped a card through a reader and pressed the ‘B’ button. They began to descend.

“You’re not alone out there, Bear,” Cisco said. “I’ll be with you as lo—” Then there was a burst of static, and his voice disappeared.

Cisco was gone. He really was alone now.

The elevator kept going down a lot longer than Barry expected. Finally, the doors opened on a long hallway. This was no basement, no janitor’s office or maintenance room. It was white and clean and clinical. Like a laboratory. 

He knew immediately - this was where those people had died.

Barry balked, heart thumping hard in his chest, but the guards pulled him along like they didn’t even notice. The first rooms had solid wood doors, painted white, and bore labels like ‘Testing Lab B’. They pulled him past without stopping. 

Next was a heavy steel door, labelled ‘Accelerator’. He could imagine what lay beyond that, and he shuddered. So NewWave really had built a particle accelerator, right under the city. Somehow they had to have dug deep, well beyond their own property, to create it. But there was no reason why that might not be possible, if they were careful.

Across from ‘Accelerator’ was ‘Subjects’ - another massive steel door. One guard tapped buttons on a keypad outside the door.

Barry’s mouth was dry and his heart raced. He had never felt so scared in his whole life. Even if Cisco succeeded in finding someone to come rescue him, would it be too late? Would they start experimenting on him immediately? Sure, he was already a metahuman, but if they were planning on doing something horrible to him, to turn him into a slave - why would they wait?

The door opened on a small room, obviously an antechamber to something far worse. He heard whimpers and moans, very faintly, beyond the door up ahead of them. In this room was a gurney with thick leather straps on it.

“We gotta get this suit off him,” one guard said, and the door closed with a mighty clang. He looked at Barry. “You gonna give us any trouble? Trust me, you don’t wanna give us any trouble.”

“Don’t. Don’t do this,” Barry stammered, shying away. “I won’t give you any trouble. But, but—”

“Good.” The guard holding him growled the word, and then shoved him up against the gurney. The other guard pulled out a rod that telescoped out to a length of two feet, and then began to spark on the end. Some kind of taser? 

Barry couldn’t stop himself from cringing away. Not only was he about to get stripped down to his underwear, but these cruel men were about to see his face!

The guard grabbed him by the back of the neck and hooked his fingers under the edge of Barry’s mask.

There was a sizzle, and a scream. The guard stumbled away, and then dropped like a stone, cracking his head audibly on the concrete floor.

“Steve!” the other guard yelled at his fallen companion, then he pointed the taser at Barry and snarled. “What the fuck did you do to him?”

Barry raised his hands, shaking with surprise. “I don’t know! I swear to god I don’t know what happened!” He had felt a tingle of electricity, but the force of it had clearly been directed at the guard. Had he been electrocuted? Because of trying to remove Barry’s mask? That had _definitely_ never happened before.

The conscious guard grabbed Barry by the arm and hauled him towards the far door of the room, punching in another code and yanking the door open. “You get in there!” he yelled. “Someone’ll be here to take that suit. You’d better think about telling us about any other cute traps you’ve got on that suit, because when I get back, it is coming off of you, even if I have to peel off your skin along with it.”

Barry was dragged through the door, the guard all but spitting in his face with the force of his fury. He saw a blur of dark, barred cells and pale faces, and then was shoved into a cell of his own. He pulled away from the guard in terror, and then the door to the cell clanged shut. 

He heard stomping footsteps retreat up the hallway, and then another bang as the door to the prison area shut, leaving him and an unknown number of prisoners alone in the semi darkness.

Barry let out a long breath, trying to calm the wild beating of his heart. He didn’t know what Cisco might have done to prevent his suit from being tampered with, but he was grateful. At least he wasn’t naked _yet_ , though it was too much to hope that he would be rescued before the guard came back with more buddies and tried again.

“Hey Flash… Glad you could join us.” The satisfied, _pleased_ female voice coming out of the darkness made Barry nearly jump out of his skin. 

He moved to the front of the cell and peered into the dimness. The entire cellblock seemed to be lit by a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, but he could just make out the familiar shape of Lisa Snart, in the cell across the hall. 

“Lisa?” Barry hissed, relieved before he remembered that Snart was probably in the middle of negotiating her release anyway. “You okay?”

“Oh yeah, I _love_ being stuffed in a dank cell and strip-searched,” she said dryly. “You doing all right, cutie?”

He swallowed. “I’m fine. Your brother’s a jerk, though.” He drew a breath and let it out, trying to put a stranglehold on his rage. It wasn’t Lisa’s fault that this happened - unless she knew that Len was going to betray him, in which case she was a jerk, too. “Look, your brother is upstairs right now. I’m sure you won’t be stuck here much longer.”

“Of course I won’t be,” Lisa said. She made a strange movement with her arm, and suddenly the cell door swung open. She sashayed into the corridor, swinging a ring of keys from her index finger. Gone were Vanessa’s clothes. Lisa was wearing a shapeless grey prison jumpsuit, and still somehow looked gorgeous. 

“Don’t be too mad, honey,” she said, leaning over to unlock Barry’s cell. “Lenny knew you’d never be able to pull off the acting job necessary to get you down here safe, so he kept the _real_ plan on the downlow. But he’ll be here soon, to make up with you.”

Barry’s jaw dropped. “I…wait. What?”

He was too stupefied to even move, so she stepped into the doorway and reached out, patting him on the shoulder. “We’re all getting out of here, kiddo,” she said. “All of this is Lenny’s plan. I get myself captured, and then you get yourself captured. Len’s installed some stuff in your suit to make sure you don’t get unmasked, because you’re sensitive about that for some reason.” 

She pointed towards the ceiling with one long finger. “Len goes upstairs to take out the head of the snake. Mick--”

A klaxon began to ring, and Lisa grinned like a shark. “Mick takes control of security. Then we all meet up, and rescue the prisoners, and deliver the bad guys to the CCPD, just like you and Lenny agreed.”

She took a couple of steps back, spreading her hands in offer. “So are you coming out of there, Flash? It’s time for phase 2, and I didn’t steal these keys from your guard for nothing.”

Barry took a breath, and then stepped out of the cell. He still couldn’t quite dare to hope that she was telling the truth. It all seemed so convenient - and yet, it made _sense_. “Really? This is really the plan? He didn’t— didn’t sell me out for money?”

Lisa cocked her head to the side. “Would he _really_ sell you out like that?”

“Yes! I mean… maybe.”

She snickered. “You were right the first time, babe, but it’s okay. He didn’t sell you out. Honestly.” She glanced around. “Now, I’ve lost track of time, but I’m sure Lenny’ll be here soon. Let’s get these pathetic losers out of their cells before more guards show up.”

“It’s about damn time,” said a new voice, from the cell right next to Barry’s. “I’m so fucking _bored_ here, and this outfit smells like Rory laundered it in a sewer filled with fish.”

Barry’s head turned so quickly that his neck popped. “Roy _Bivolo_?”

Lisa laughed. “Flash? Meet our ace in the hole - the ‘homeless guy’ Mick sold them this morning.”


	11. Chapter 11

Everything was going precisely according to plan. Just the way Len liked it.

Len felt like a king as he strutted into the elevator with his companion - the lovely and _rich_ homicidal nerd, Laura Garcia, who ran NewWave. He’d gotten to know her fairly well over the last thirty-six hours, despite only having spoken to her on the phone a handful of times _and_ having to keep the whole thing from Barry.

Barry, who had been burning holes in his back with the force of his angry glare all the way here. Well, Len could understand it. Barry had to be kicking himself even harder now than he had during the Ferris Air incident. But honestly, what did he expect? 

God, he was adorable when he was furious, though - his lips all tight and his jaw clenched. Though two guards had been holding his arms and he had no speed, he had been all but vibrating with the force of his rage. Gorgeous. 

Len hadn’t been able to resist drinking in the sight as long as he could before the doors closed between them.

Too bad the chance to touch him all over would never come again. Unfortunately, there hadn’t been time to do half of the things Len had fantasized about. But still, Len had had an opportunity to amass a few memories that he would treasure for a long time, before he torpedoed the whole thing. 

Laura pressed the button for the top floor, and glanced up at him, eyes sparkling with pleasure. “How _did_ you convince him to just walk right into my grasp like that?”

“Told him I was going to help him rescue the prisoners,” Len said honestly, leaning against the wall. Her body was warm, pressed against his side, and his stomach churned faintly. Barry might have been stupid not to expect something like this, and he _was_ beautiful when he was so filled with rage and fire, but it still sucked to contemplate a Flash-free future. This woman was a monster, too. The sooner Lisa was out of here, the better.

“Oooh,” Garcia purred. “You really _are_ terrible.” Her fingers walked up his chest, and she smiled at him.

He smirked down at her. “I am. Honestly, he has no one to blame but himself.”

The doors opened and she led him down the hall towards her office. The upper floor of NewWave didn’t look anything like an evil mad scientist’s lair. It was clean and professional; taupe walls and sensible carpeting, name plates on each door in little sliding fixtures so you could change the plates out if someone was fired or promoted or moved offices. After hours, it was fairly quiet. Most of the offices were dark, though there were a few people working late.

“So what are you doing to those people, anyway?” he asked. 

“Why? Does it matter?” She opened the door to her office, a handsome corner one with a mahogany desk and leather chairs. 

“Only to my curiosity,” Len said with a shrug. “If you’re worried about me being willing to bring people to you, don’t be.”

“I see.” She broke away from him and settled into her chair, a large leather office chair with wings that hugged her shoulders. She gestured to a small briefcase on her desk. “It’s all there.”

Len crossed the room and opened the briefcase, glancing at the small, unmarked and unsequential bills inside. A hundred grand wasn’t chump change, though he usually worked with more high-ticket items. Still, it was a nice payday. He closed the briefcase and pushed it aside. “Looks like it. So what gives? I think I have the right to know something, before I sign on the dotted line.”

Laura crossed her legs, showing off an expanse of bare skin. Len perched on the corner of the desk, folding his arms casually and glancing down her cleavage. She shifted forward, giving him a better view. 

“I suppose you’re right. I’ve been working for years on developing a way to enhance people,” she said. “Our drug trials have had marginal success, but the failure rate is appalling. The only thing that’s been proven to work the way we want is the particle accelerator that created the Flash, but of course we can’t simply set off the STAR Labs one again, even if it were functional. It needs to be contained within a smaller area, or it’d affect the larger population. Besides, we want to use the metahumans we create, not unleash them on the city.”

“Fascinating,” Len said neutrally. “Tell me more.” 

She all but wriggled with her excitement. “With the Flash to run tests on, we can learn more about his physiology, and determine how to increase our success rate. We created a smaller version of the STAR Labs accelerator, right under this property, and we have all of the data that’s been gathered about the Flash by STAR Labs. I’m certain that combining the drugs we’ve already developed with small doses of the correct radiation, we can create as many super-soldiers as we want.”

Len arched a brow, and leaned in. “And then what?”

“You wouldn’t _believe_ how many international crime and paramilitary organizations there are who would _love_ compliant metahumans like the Flash,” she purred conspiratorially. 

“Must be quite a lot,” Len said. Her hands were moving up his leg, and he shifted closer, dangling his legs on either side of her thighs and leaning close. She tilted her head up towards him expectantly. “You sold any yet?”

“We have a list of potential buyers,” she breathed. “Once we have a reliable supply.” She shifted upwards, hands crawling up his thighs towards his groin, and he groaned deeply. “If you play your cards right, Leonard, you could be rich right along with me.”

“Sounds _fabulous_ ,” Len said, and grabbed her hand. She gasped as he lunged forward, her chair pitching backwards as he wrapped his other arm around her and covered her mouth so that her scream wouldn’t carry. In an instant, she was face down on the floor, right arm wrenched painfully behind her back and the other one scrabbling uselessly on the carpet, his knee in the centre of her back.

He pulled zip ties out of his pocket and lashed her hands together tightly. He leaned over her, putting his lips to her ear. “Scream, and you won’t live to see the inside of a jail cell.”

Eyes wide and panicked, her breathing coming rapidly in her chest, she nodded, and he removed the hand covering her mouth. “What are you _doing_?” she whimpered as he tied her legs together.

He grinned fiercely. “The _plan_.” He pulled the recording device out of his pocket and waggled it at her, before switching it off and stowing it away again. “Now that I have your confession, where did you say that list of buyers was? Chop chop now - I’m on the clock. I need to go meet up with Mick and rescue the Flash before your minions do something terrible to him.”

As if on cue, the lights all turned red and an alarm began to wail. Metal grates rolled down from the ceiling and slammed into place over every window. 

Len’s grin only widened. “Aaaand that’ll be Mick.”

~ ~ ~

Mick watched Len walk into the elevator and disappear, looking smug as a pig in shit and yet at the same time like there were ants crawling on his skin. Mick wasn’t sure why Len didn’t want to fuck that woman - she was pretty damn hot. Sure, she was doing shitty things to innocent people, but was that really a good reason not to do it? Len had weird hangups sometimes.

He settled his hip against the security desk and leaned over, glancing at the monitors. 

The Flash and his escort were standing by the bank of elevators, waiting. After a few seconds, the doors opened and the Flash was whisked away with his two guards. Mick watched them go, then turned to watch the remainder of the guards head back outside.

He pulled out his heat gun and checked the charge on it to pass the time.

“What kind of gun is that?” asked one of the guards, his eyes lighting up with curiosity. “I’ve never seen a weapon like that, before.”

“You like it?” Mick grinned and turned the gun over, letting him see the cylindrical chamber that contained the igniting fluid. “It’s a heat gun. It sets things on fire.”

“A flame thrower?” the man asked, rising to get a better look. “It’s so small. Your partner’s got one too, huh?”

“It’s a _heat_ gun, I said. And Snart’s? His is different. It’s a cold gun.”

“Badass, man.” 

Mick grinned and exchanged a fist bump with the guard, who sat down. The Flash was on the monitors, descending in the elevator. Then the elevator doors opened and he disappeared from view. Mick scanned the screens quickly, but didn’t see a hint of where he had gone. “Must be pretty boring, just watching these TVs all day long,” he grunted. “You don’t even get the game or anything.”

“Yeah… well this is partly PR,” the guard said, leaning back in his chair. “There’s a command centre in the basement that monitors security down there. Can’t have inspectors or police seeing anything weird or illegal if they walk in.”

“Right,” Mick said. “But, you aren’t just desk jockeys. I mean, you guys are security, too.”

“Sure. We keep an eye on who comes in and out, and can shut things down from here. We’re the first line of defense if something goes south.” Mick’s new best friend grinned at him. The other one was preoccupied, frowning at the screens and drinking coffee. Apparently he didn’t want to be friends with Mick.

Well. Fuck him, then. Mick didn’t _need_ to be friends with both of the guards. One was enough.

Mick nodded, then glanced around, frowning. “Hey, you guys got the time?”

His friend pulled back his sleeve and showed Mick his watch. It was digital. Mick glanced at the time, did a little math in his head, and then counted twelve more seconds. 

Then he shot his friend in the chest with his heat gun. There was a lot of screaming and flailing, but unfortunately there was nothing else around that was flammable, so the fire was quickly beaten out. The other guard yelled and slammed a panic button on the console. At the touch of the button, metal doors slammed shut, and an alarm started wailing. Good.

Mick vaulted the desk and started punching. Within seconds, both men were down on the floor, groaning, and Mick pulled out the zip ties to tie them both up. 

Really, the second idiot should have just gone for his own gun and tried to shoot Mick - not that it would have saved him, but he hadn’t even _tried_ to kill Mick before hitting the button, and now he was unconscious. Dumbass. 

Mick dragged both guards behind the security desk again and shoved them deep under it, out of sight. Then he sat down in one of the chairs. His gloved fingers played over the buttons as he checked settings and altered various security functions. He switched off the audible alarm, but kept the lockdown in place. Following Snart’s instructions, he halted all of the elevators, except for one, which he left open on the fifth floor, locked to Laura Garcia’s ID only.

The second command centre was almost certainly going to be a problem, but at least from here he could make sure the building was completely shut down and restrict movement. Half of the guards would be trapped outside, unable to get in. There were still an unknown number of security guards in the building, but they couldn’t get reinforcements. 

When he’d done as much as he could from here, he leaned back in his chair and held his heat gun at the ready in case any guards showed up to give him trouble. All he had to do now was wait for Snart so they could go save his new boytoy from the pickle they had intentionally put him in. And his sister, too. 

Hopefully they wouldn’t grow any weird new body parts before they got there, because that’d be a fucking buzzkill.


	12. Chapter 12

Len took the elevator down to the main floor and paused, gun at the ready, when the doors opened. All was quiet, except for a faint whimpering sound, and some thumping from outside. The windows into the bright, airy lobby area were covered in more of the thick metal grating, which now made the place look more militaristic rather than corporate. Even the front doors were sealed with metal bars that looked like they might withstand a small tank.

The guards outside didn’t have a tank. There were half a dozen Len could see from where he stood, peering in and banging ineffectually on the windows with their weapons.

Len sauntered down the hall to the security desk, where he found Mick sitting in one of the chairs with his feet up. The whimpering was coming from under the desk.

“How’d it go, partner?” Mick asked, peering at the monitors.

“Just peachy.” Len dropped the briefcase full of cash on the desk and Mick sat up immediately. He opened the case and ran his gloved fingers over the money.

“Mmmm, love that smell,” Mick said, shutting the briefcase. 

“I got the confession,” Len said. “The recorder is in there, too, so keep the case safe.”

“Would I lose it?” Mick asked, affronted.

 _No, because losing the recorder would involve losing the payday,_ Len thought. Neither of them had to say it. They just grinned at each other.

“You going to go rescue your boytoy now?” Mick asked, slamming his boots one after another onto the desk and then leaning way back in the chair again, with the heat gun in his lap. 

“…Yes,” Len said. “And my sister. Remember her?” 

Mick grunted, pulled Lisa’s gun out from under his jacket and placed it on the desk. “Lisa probably doesn’t need saving.”

“True.” Len paused. “Keep an eye on things here. After we get the prisoners, we’ll have to make one more stop before we can leave, and I’m still not sure where that stop will be. Unless you’ve been able to figure out where the machine is that’s limiting the Flash’s speed.”

“No idea,” Mick said. “But there’s another security station in the basement, Snart. Watch your back.”

Len nodded, scooped up the gold gun, and turned away. “You watch yours, Mick. This’ll all be over soon, and then we can get out of this freaky place.”

“Send a couple of guards my way, okay? It’s boring up here. These TVs don’t even get the game.”

Len’s lips twisted wryly as he walked back to the only working elevator in the building. He knew singeing one guy wasn’t going to really cut it for his pyromaniac friend, but it couldn’t be helped. There were Rules. 

He got into the elevator and descended, quite a surprisingly long way. The moment the doors opened, Len heard the screaming.

Readying his cold gun, Len walked unhurriedly down the hallway, past the first couple of rooms. Up ahead, a door was open, and the screaming issued from beyond it. As he approached, two men in guard uniforms came charging out of the room, simultaneously attempting to claw each other’s eyes out. One of them bit the other on the finger and blood ran down his chin as they wrestled to the ground and started punching one another in the head.

_Ah. Bivolo. Good boy._

One guard managed to get in a particularly good shot, and the other slumped to the floor. The first struggled to roll the heavy man off of him, and Len kicked him sharply in the head, knocking him out as well.

Then Len stepped gingerly past the two now unconscious guards and pushed the door open. Beyond was a large room with a wall of monitors and several desks. Three more guards were writhing on the ground, attempting to kill each other, while Barry made an ineffectual effort to pull one off of the others. Arrayed around the room were half a dozen more, all mercifully unconscious.

“Help me with this, Roy!” Barry snapped. “Can’t you just stop this? Stop using your powers on them!”

“Why?” Roy asked lazily. He was sitting on top of one of the desks, legs swinging. He was still dressed in his ‘hobo’ outfit, a stained hoodie and ripped jeans, both of which had a distinct aroma of fish, as Mick had said. “They wanted to turn me into a monster and sell me to the highest bidder. _Fuck_ those guys, man.”

“Hi Lenny,” Lisa said brightly. “Glad you could join us.” She was also watching the proceedings from a safe vantage point.

One of the guards punched Barry in the thigh and then attempted to take a chunk out of his calf. Barry yelped and then backpedaled, narrowly avoiding getting bitten. 

Len waded in and slammed the butt of his gun into the bitey man’s head, and he slumped to the floor. The other two were already unconscious, and silence reigned for the moment. 

“Lisa. Roy. Tie these guys up, and the ones outside,” Len barked, then turned to look at Barry. “You okay?”

Barry was staring at him with an uncertain expression, which deepened at Len’s question. “Um. Yeah.” The Flash hesitated, then straightened his shoulders. “You really didn’t sell me out.” 

Len wasn’t sure if it was a question, though it did go up slightly at the end. Either way, Len shook his head. “I didn’t sell you out.”

Lisa slipped out of the room, gesturing to Roy, who glared at her for a moment before following her. Len waited for them to leave, and was glad when the door closed, leaving him alone with Barry - other than the unconscious guards, of course.

Glad, until Barry grabbed Len by the collar and pushed him hard against the wall. Even without his speed, he was actually pretty strong, though Len also didn’t fight back. 

Barry got in his face, glaring through the mask he wore. “Don’t _ever_ do something like that again! You could have _told_ me, Len! I thought you were _using_ me.”

There he was again, being gorgeous. Len kept his hands at his sides, not even touching his cold gun. He didn’t feel threatened, really - Barry didn’t have his speed anyway and Len was sure he could take him down if he had to. But it wasn’t just that. Barry wasn’t actually trying to hurt him at all. 

Vaguely, Len understood that Barry was trying to tell him something important.

“I thought I didn’t matter to you at all!” Barry continued, his eyes wide and his lower lip trembling. “I thought…” His eyes turned away and he sagged. 

He was trying to tell Len that he had hurt Barry deeply.

That revelation took his breath away. 

Len swallowed, unsure of what to do. He lifted his hands and slipped them around Barry’s waist, fully expecting the speedster to shove him off, reject the touch. Instead, Barry melted against him, his cowl-clad head coming to rest on Len’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Len said softly. He chose his words carefully, feeling as though he was picking his way through a minefield, or navigating a labyrinth. He had never traversed this sort of terrain before. “I didn’t know it’d hurt you like this.”

Barry stiffened in his arms and looked up, a flash of anger in his eyes before it faded away, replaced by confusion. “You didn’t _know_ it would hurt me for you to fucking sell me to some psycho?”

When Barry said it like _that_ , it sounded stupid - but Len was still pretty sure it wasn’t. He shrugged uncomfortably. “I thought you would expect it. I didn’t think you’d get so emotionally involved with me after what I’d already done to you in the past.”

“I wouldn’t’ve let you have sex with me even once if I expected _that_!” Barry exclaimed, his voice rising with bafflement. 

“Oh.”

Barry stared at him for a few seconds. Len found himself wanting to avoid his gaze, feeling an uncharacteristic surge of something like shame. But he looked at Barry anyway, hiding his uncertainty behind the goggles. Hopefully.

When Barry spoke, his tone was even once again. “You really thought I wouldn’t get emotionally invested in this?”

 _This? Is there still a this?_ Len swallowed down a bright rush of hope he knew he didn’t deserve to feel. “I thought… after Ferris Air, and after I killed my father, and after everything else, that you wouldn’t, no.”

Barry’s eyebrows pinched together under the cowl and he lifted a hand, brushing his gloved fingers against Len’s cheek. The touch made him shiver pleasantly. 

“Well, that’s just not what I’m like,” Barry said. “I do believe there’s good in you, Len. I told you that in Iron Heights. You proved it again when you came to my house at Christmas to warn me that the Trickster and Mardon were after me. I wouldn’t have come to you at all if I hadn’t thought there was a good chance that things would be different this time.”

Len kissed him. 

Maybe it was a dumb idea - it would only tell Barry a lie that Len had accepted there was good in him, for one thing, which wasn’t even true. But he wanted to do it, so he did - that was what he told himself, and he would stick to that story all the way to the grave.

Besides, that saved him from having to come up with something witty and cutting to say to all that sweet mushy stuff.

For once, he didn’t think he could stand to see the inevitable hurt that his wit could cause.

To his surprise, Barry returned the kiss without hesitation. His lips were eager and hot under Len’s, opening easily to Len’s tongue as their bodies molded together. They kissed, and Barry’s hands slipped up under Len’s parka, and they both shivered with delight as they explored each other’s mouths.

Someone cleared their throat. 

It wasn’t Lisa, so Len pointed his gun at the sound before breaking the kiss and looking at Roy. “ _What_?”

Roy stared at the gun, then met Len’s gaze. He wasn’t wearing his sunglasses, but Len refused to look away. “Um. The plan? Shouldn’t we be getting a move on, lover boy?” The Rainbow Raider turned his gaze on Barry, and glared heatedly, then looked at Len again with annoyed expectation. 

Barry broke away, blushing furiously. Len pointed his gun at the ceiling, chagrined. “Right, the plan.” 

Lisa walked back into the room, putting her hands on her hips and grinning like it was Christmas morning.

Len drew a breath. Time to get his head back in the game. “Roy, take the rest of the prisoners up to the ground floor. Stay with Mick, and keep them calm. We’ll get them out of here, but we need to make sure the building’s secure and the Flash has his speed back, before we lift the lockdown. Get hold of Joe West at the CCPD and tell him what’s happening. Make sure he knows that we have things under control and will deliver the criminals _and_ the prisoners to him when the time is right, but have him bring a couple of squad cars. Just make sure he doesn’t try to breach the compound. I don’t want any cops to get themselves killed tonight.”

“Joe West?” Roy asked, mystified. 

“He owes me a favour,” Len snapped.

Roy shrugged, accepting the explanation, then turned and left. Len looked at Lisa. “Lisa, stay here and coordinate with Mick to keep the lockdown going. The Flash and I will look for whatever is stopping his speed. Have you seen anything that’ll give us a clue?”

Lisa brightened, and moved over to one of the banks of monitors. “Actually, I _have_ seen something really weird. Look at this.” She tapped a few keys, and a view of a darkened room came up. Though the camera couldn’t pick up much, he could still see that the room was dominated by a strange spherical object, deep black, but with trails of electricity tracing itself over its surface every few seconds. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. It’s on the third floor,” Lisa said. “And it’s got nothing to do with the particle accelerator as far as I can tell. That’s in the basement.”

“That looks like my speed lightning,” Barry breathed, peering over Len’s shoulder at the screen. “It’s certainly nothing like anything I’ve seen at STAR Labs. It has to be it.”

“Good. Seems like it’s worth checking out. We’ll go after that thing first, and destroy it.” Len looked at Barry. “You follow my lead. We don’t know how many guards or layers of security we’ll have to deal with.”

Barry nodded. “Got it.” He grinned, and Len felt like melting in a completely pleasant way. How did he _do_ that?

“All right,” Len said, smiling fiercely. Somehow, it was all working out. “Let’s finish this.”


	13. Chapter 13

Before Len walked into the security room Barry had been completely certain that he didn’t forgive Len - would _never_ forgive Len. When he confronted him, Barry had _thought_ he was cussing Len out. That whatever they had had for one brief moment was broken forever. That it had never really been anything but broken.

But then there had been apologies - weird ones, but sincere all the same - and then Len had _kissed_ him, and Barry had _liked it_ , and now Barry really didn’t know how to feel. 

He knew he should still be angry, but he just wasn’t. His lips tingled and his body was warm from the firm, yet gentle way Len held him. And he could still hear the awkward tone of Len’s voice as he apologized, like he wasn’t really sure how to do it right, but was doing his best.

Barry’s heart just melted, no matter how he tried to harden it.

They left Lisa behind in the security room, with all of the guards shoved out of the way and securely tied up. She had her gun back, and Barry was sure she was able to handle herself, even alone in there, but he hoped she wouldn’t have to use the gun at all. He also kinda wished he had a weapon of his own. He was still feeling very vulnerable without the speed force, though he trusted Len’s ability to protect him. It just didn’t seem _right_ , though - Barry needing to be protected.

As they emerged from the security room, Roy was herding the other half-dozen prisoners into the elevator. The door closed and whisked them all away, hopefully to safety - certainly at least to the vicinity of Mick and his heat gun, which constituted some definition of safety, he hoped.

Barry moved to the room marked ‘Accelerator’ and inspected the keypad attached to the door. Without his speed, he had no idea how to get into the room, but it was likely that the stolen STAR Labs tech was in there. This was obviously Len’s show, though, so he would have to follow his lead. 

“So…what’s the plan?” he asked

“Go up to the third floor, take out the device that’s stopping your speed. Then we go out the front door. You use your speed to take out the remaining guards and we deliver all the bad guys to the CCPD,” Len said, sounding rather smug. 

Barry nodded, then cocked his head. “What did you need those photos of the investigation for?” 

Len hesitated, then shrugged. “To make you feel involved.”

There was a long pause. Barry let out a long sigh. “Right.”

Len grinned sheepishly. “Sorry.” Though he didn’t sound sorry at all.

Barry glanced back at him. There he was, in his parka, with the goggles covering his eyes and his cold gun strapped to his thigh. He looked every inch the villain Barry had clashed with so many times. And yet.

And yet.

There was a warmth in Barry’s chest when he looked at him, and that grin on Len’s face was almost…hopeful. He wanted Barry to approve. And honestly? It had been a good plan from start to finish, even if it had scared Barry half to death.

“I think it’ll work,” Barry said. “But we also need to get STAR Labs’ equipment back. I don’t want it to wind up in some evidence lockup. We never reported that theft to the police, for one thing.”

Len clucked his tongue. “I forgot to mention that part. I was going to leave it to Lisa, but since we’re here…” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small leather case. Opening it up, he revealed a tiny set of tools, like a soldering iron and a screwdriver. “So Flash, how would you like to learn how to crack a simple keypad?”

Barry’s jaw dropped. “Um, really? You want to teach me how to break into places?”

“I would _love_ to,” Len said gleefully. “So glad you asked.” He caught Barry by the shoulder and dropped to one knee next to the pad, tugging Barry down next to him. He handed Barry the screwdriver. “Remove the face plate. Let’s see what we’re looking at.”

Barry did as he was told, his heart thumping. Over the next ten minutes, Len walked him through identifying the correct wires, cutting them and rewiring the pad. Barry understood immediately that this was a task Len could have accomplished in minutes - maybe even seconds - yet the older man patiently made Barry perform each step himself, no matter how clumsy he was.

He twisted the last two wires together. Suddenly the light on the pad changed to green, and the heavy steel door unlocked with a click. Len crowed with delight and Barry felt his heart soar. He had done it!

He had…learned how to steal things. 

Maybe he should have felt bad about it, but it was really pretty cool - way cooler than getting past the door for Lewis Snart had been. That had been nothing more than trial and error, but really, really fast. Barry had just tried combinations until one worked. Anyone could do it, if they had the time.

This was different, and Len’s excitement only made it better. 

When Barry jumped to his feet, Len caught him by the waist. “You did good, Flash,” he said, and kissed him. It was playful and silly, and it warmed Barry right down to his toes. 

Grinning, the two men slipped through the door into a control room that looked somewhat familiar. Nearly the exact same setup existed at STAR Labs. At the back of the room was a window, but all he could see beyond it was a cavernous darkness. The particle accelerator.

Barry missed the sound of Cisco in his ear as he walked over to the control panel. Cisco would have been able to tell him where to look for the missing equipment, for one thing. The problem with Len cutting him out of the real plan was that he had no idea what he was _doing_.

He touched some buttons and lights came on in the room beyond, revealing the interior of the particle accelerator. It looked like a hallway, stretching on for ages to the right and left, but Barry knew it was far more than that. There were magnets embedded in the walls, to drive the particles faster and faster until they collided with one another, generating powerful bursts of radiation.

Immediately ahead were five niches, each with a slab inside, human-sized, with straps for the arms and legs. “God damn, look at that,” Barry said, shuddering.

Len stood at his shoulder, and peered through the window. “Lucky there’s no prisoners in there,” he said, and touched Barry’s arm. “Come on, I think it’s this way.”

“You know what we’re looking for?” Barry asked, feeling silly. Of course Len wouldn’t have come in here without knowing exactly what was stolen and where to find it. Len shrugged and walked to the door into the particle accelerator proper. As Barry had suspected, he was able to pick the lock with a set of picks so quickly that Barry scarcely saw him do it. Then they both entered the massive machine.

Len looked around, then went straight for the wall opposite the cells, where Barry spotted a familiar-looking array of machinery. Embedded in the centre was the control device, a cylindrical shape with diodes along the side. Now that Barry saw it, he realized he’d seen it a hundred times before, but just had never really noticed it. Len hesitated, then simply reached out and uncoupled it from its housing, and the whole panel went dark. 

“Well, that was simple enough,” Len commented, tossing the device up and down thoughtfully in his hand before slipping it into a pocket of his parka. Maybe that was the real reason he wore it - lots of deep pockets. 

Barry nodded with relief. “So now we go to the third floor?” he asked hopefully. “I want my speed back.”

Len turned and grinned. “Let’s get your speed back, Flash. You’re just not the same without it.”

Even though Barry knew it was true and would have said the same thing, the words hit him a little hard. It was silly to think that Len didn’t like him as much without it, but it was probably true, right? After all, if Barry weren’t the Flash and they had ever met in person, Len would never have given him a second thought.

Yet even as the thought flickered through his mind, Len caught him around the waist and kissed him again.

Barry flushed slightly, but turned into the kiss. He knew they were under time pressure, but the urgency seemed to fall away as their lips met. They were safe for the moment - their enemies restrained or locked out - and the prisoners freed. They had control of the building. He could enjoy this without guilt.

Len’s hands roamed his back, pulling him close against his body as they explored each other’s mouths as if it were the first time. 

Finally, they came up for air. Barry was tingling again with happiness as he looked at the older man, whose lips twisted with a more sardonic version of the smile Barry was sure was on his own face. “You forgive me?” Len asked.

“Yeah,” Barry admitted, somewhat grudgingly. Then he forced his face into the most stern expression he could muster. “But _really_ , Leonard. Don’t do that to me again.”

Len’s arms tightened and he arched a brow. “That must mean you’re planning on letting me have another chance to do it.” Barry scowled at him and he released him with a laugh, waving his hands in surrender. “ _Yes_ , I promise not to fake-betray you ever again. Or _real_ -betray you, if that’s still a concern.” 

He turned away, paused, then glanced at him sidelong with a smirk. “ _Assuming_ , of course, I still get to have all this.” He waved a hand in an offhand gesture that somehow encompassed Barry’s entire body.

Barry blushed to the tips of his ears. “Um…yes.”

“Good.” 

“For the record, that was the least romantic way anyone has ever asked a person out, in the history of the world,” Barry informed him.

“You want mushy stuff? Go elsewhere,” Len retorted, utterly unrepentant. 

“Guess I’ll have to live with that, then. But for the record, I’m _super_ mushy, and you’re just going to have to deal with _that_ ,” Barry said, and there was something warm and awkwardly pleased in Len’s smile that made it all worthwhile.

Len walked back to the door and pushed it open. As if that was a signal, the lights all shut off, then came on again, a deep blood red. A klaxon rang. Len swore and raced to the far door, but slammed into it as it refused to budge. “Locked,” he hissed, and dug for his tools again.

“Can you get it open?” Barry asked, his voice rising with panic. They had the control device, but that didn’t necessarily mean that someone couldn’t turn the particle accelerator on. Would they be killed like the prisoners in the pipeline would have been when Eobard turned on the STAR Labs accelerator? Or would it be even _worse_. Barry shuddered just imagining what the murdered prisoners must have gone through. 

Len shot him an impatient look. “Of _course_.” He sorted through the tools and got to work on the door with focused attention. “But this means there’s something wrong. I need to check on Lisa and Mick right now.”

Within seconds, Len had unlocked the door and he and Barry burst back into the hallway, turning to race side by side towards the security room.


	14. Chapter 14

Len made straight for the security room at the end of the hall. He paused, gun at the ready, and listened at the door. Barry clearly got the idea and hung back, all but vibrating with worry at Len’s shoulder. Problem was, with the alarm going off, Len couldn’t hear a damn thing. He didn’t hear gunshots, but not much else could have been audible through the heavy door.

He was just going to have to chance it.

He gestured to Barry to get out of the way of the door and then quickly grabbed the handle. He pushed it open and burst through, gun out and ready to fire. “Lisa!”

“Here, Lenny.”

Lisa had her own gun in her hand, pointed at Len, but she put it down again and immediately played her fingers over the keyboard in front of her. She glared up at the monitors, and then down at the computer screen in front of her.

Len lowered his gun and strode across the room to his sister. “What’s going on?”

“I’ve lost control,” she hissed between clenched teeth. “The security systems are being reset. Every time I take back a system, I lose another one.”

Barry came up behind him, his lower lip stuck between his teeth. “What about the prisoners? Is Rory okay?”

Len had been just about to ask something similar. Lisa gestured to another monitor, which showed the first floor lobby. “Mick’s fine. This isn’t coming from there.” On the screen, Mick looked like he was swearing up a storm. He was also pounding keys, his brows furrowed heavily with concentration.

Len let out a breath. “So there’s a third security station, or a computer terminal that allows someone to override the system.”

“Maybe on the top floor? The fifth?” Barry suggested. Len nodded, scowling, his mind racing.

Lisa suddenly cursed and slammed a fist against the desk, before renewing her frantic efforts. “I just lost most of the elevators, and I don’t think I can spare the time to get them back without losing the whole damn thing. I’ve still got one we can use, and I’m bringing it down to our level.”

“Forget the elevators for now. You’ve got to keep the building locked down.” Len growled. “If the guards outside breach the doors, it’ll be Roy and Mick all alone trying to protect those saps up there.”

“I _know_ , Lenny,” Lisa said impatiently, blowing a fallen lock of hair out of her eyes. 

“We need to find whoever’s doing this,” Barry said, grabbing Len’s arm. His eyes were wide behind his mask, and Len wondered what he was feeling - he didn’t have a weapon, or his speed. Yet he was determined to go and fight anyway. 

“No, we need to get your speed dealt with. We know where we’re going to deal with that and we can only guess at where this attack is coming from, but once you’ve got your speed then we’ll go after whoever is doing this. For now—” Len caught up one of the handguns they had taken off of a guard, and pressed it into Barry’s hand. “You can use this to protect yourself.”

Barry grimaced, looking at the gun with distaste, then he put it down. “No, I’ll be okay. I’ll probably be more of a hindrance with a gun than a help.” The young man looked up and squared his shoulders. “I know you’ll keep me safe until I have my speed back. Let’s go.”

Len had no idea what to say to that, but he had a hard time not grinning foolishly in response.

“Have fun, kiddies,” Lisa called as they headed for the door. 

The elevator they still had control of was standing open at the end of the hallway. They made for it, but even as they approached, the doors began to close. Barry cursed and darted forward, sprinting the last few feet and throwing himself at the doors, but they closed when his fingers were still inches away. That had to be frustrating for the speedster - it was pretty frustrating just in _general_.

“I think Lisa lost control of this one, too,” Barry panted.

“Looks like,” Len said, glaring at the closed door. “There’s no emergency staircase down here that I’ve seen. The only way up is the elevator shaft.”

Barry hesitated, then nodded. The two of them applied themselves to the closed door, prying them open from the outside. Beyond was a gaping hole. Apparently there were lower levels, too.

Len leaned out carefully and looked up. The elevator retreated ponderously upwards, getting further away with every second. 

There was a maintenance ladder, at least. Len caught hold of a rung, swung over to it and began to climb. Barry followed without complaint.

“Hey Len?” Barry asked after a while. They had already climbed more than a storey up, and Len wondered how far they’d have to go before they even reached the first floor, let alone the third.

“Yeah, Barry?”

“What happens if the elevator starts to come down and we’re still in here?”

Len grimaced. He’d been trying not to think about that. “Hopefully that’s not going to happen.”

“Oh. Okay.”

They both fell silent, and continued to climb. 

Right about the moment Len spotted the the doors for the first floor up above him, Barry touched the lightning bolt over his ear. “Cisco! Can you hear me?” He paused, and Len almost _heard_ him wince. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

Len reluctantly reached into his pocket and pulled out his earbud. He had arranged for Cisco to be told what was going on, but he didn’t expect that Mick’s call would have reassured him. At first, Len had removed the earbud because he had figured Cisco would be distracting while he tried to get a confession out of Laura. But there was a reason he hadn’t put it back in until now - listening to him bitch and moan when Len had it all under control had not been something he was willing to do.

He switched it on. “…the hell happened, Bear? Heat Wave said it was all according to plan, but he wouldn’t tell me much. He _hung up_ on me, dude.”

“Ramon, I’m here,” Len said. “We’ve rescued the prisoners and recovered your tech. We’re just locking down the building and heading to destroy the device we think is stopping Barry’s speed force. Any other questions can wait until we get out of here.”

“I’m not listening to you, _Captain Cold_. This was all one of your tricks!” Cisco snapped. And then, vaguely horrified. “And why are you out of breath? Are you and Barry… oh god, please tell me you aren’t making with the creepy gross stuff right _now_. We’re supposed to be in the middle of a _crisis_ here!”

Len didn’t dignify that last bit with an answer.

“Cisco, calm down,” Barry said, rescuing Len. “It was scary for a minute there, but Len _didn’t_ betray us and everything is okay. Uh, except that someone in the building is hacking the security. Mick and Lisa are in the security rooms, but someone is taking control of the systems. I don’t suppose there’s anything in the plans that might give us a clue where someone could do that…?”

There was a pause, while Cisco probably gave himself a mental reset and also searched for the answer to Barry’s question. “Uh…could be that any computer terminal with a hookup to the mainframe would have the ability to do it, so long as the person at the terminal had the access and the knowledge. If it were me, I’d build a back door into the network that only a few people knew how to access, just in case someone did exactly what you’ve done. Essentially the person doing it could be anywhere in the building. They just have to know the back door passwords.”

“Well, that’s helpful,” Len said ironically.

“Leonard,” Barry said in a warning tone. 

“Shut up, Cold! I’m still mad at you,” Cisco said at the same moment. 

Len rolled his eyes. 

“So what are you guys really doing right now?” Cisco asked tentatively.

“Uh, the elevators are in the control of the enemy, so we’re climbing the elevator shaft,” Barry said wryly.

Cisco gave a gasp. “Wait, wait. _Wait_ just a second. Am I hearing this right? The building’s all locked down. Unknown enemies ahead. Sneaking around climbing in elevator shafts and air vents - you guys are _Die Harding_ this thing!”

Despite himself, Len started to laugh. He stopped climbing for a moment and leaned his forehead against the rung, struggling to regain his composure.

“That is so _cool_ ,” Cisco finished, awestruck.

“Thanks, Cisco,” Barry said, which Len thought was fairly diplomatic. “If you find out anything that’ll help, please keep us up to date. And coordinate with Mick if you can. He’s got all the prisoners with him and Roy.”

“Wait, Rainbow Raider’s involved in this, too?”

Len started climbing again. He reached the level of the first floor and paused for a moment, resting, then struck out for the second floor. He had to have traversed at least twice the distance to the third floor already, but now they were on the last leg of the journey. His arms ached and his breathing was ragged - and here he’d thought he was in good shape.

Barry, the jerk, was barely winded. He was talking animatedly about Bivolo and the escape from the cells, explaining everything that had happened since the two friends lost contact.

“So what you’re saying is I should probably call off Firestorm?” Cisco asked, wrenching Len’s attention back to the conversation. 

“Why, where is he?” Len demanded.

“Well, I called him up when Barry got captured,” Cisco explained. “But when he got there he saw the building was locked down. He’s outside the perimeter, with the cops.”

“Good,” Len said, relieved. The last thing he wanted was fiery chaos he _hadn’t_ planned for. “Just tell him to stay where he is until we come out. Then he can blow up as many guards as he wants to keep them off our backs.”

“Roger,” Cisco said. “Aaaand, I’ll just call the Arrow and tell him to turn back. They’re still hours away anyway.”

Len would have facepalmed, but his hands were busy and he didn’t want to risk falling. “You do that.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that.” The line went dead.

They climbed, reaching the second floor doorway. “Cisco’s really a good friend,” Barry said softly. “And he’s kept me alive all this time.”

“I know,” Len said. He snorted softly. “He’s great. We couldn’t have done this without him - at least, not nearly this quickly. What’s your point?” He knew very well that Ramon was both competent and loyal. 

“Oh,” Barry said, startled. “Nothing, I guess.”

A whirring sound made them both look up. The cables began to shift, as the elevator above them began to descend. Len grimaced. The door to the third floor was about ten feet away. 

“Climb, Barry,” Len ordered, surging upwards to climb with renewed energy, fighting against the ache in his arms. He was aware of Barry right behind him, and the young man could probably have passed him by easily if there was room.

But rather than getting frustrated, Barry called encouragement up to him. “Come on, Len. You can do it. Go!”

He tried to hate it, to feel annoyed that Barry cheered him on like he was holding a pair of pom-poms, but something about it gave Len the energy to keep going. He threw himself upwards, panting, and reached the doors. With a curse, he jammed his fingers into the space between the doors and tried to pry them open.

The elevator approached inexorably.

An instant later, Barry was there beside him. They both applied their strength to the doors, fingers cramping from the climb, and slowly the doors opened. The hallway beyond was lit in a crimson glow, but otherwise completely dark. The moment they had enough space, Len jerked his head to Barry. “Go!”

The slender young man slipped obediently into the doorway, but instead of disappearing into the blackness, he applied his legs and back, and pushed the door wider. Len dove through the gap, feeling the elevator brush against his clothing as it hurtled past. 

Then they were both in the hallway on the third floor, alone.

Or so they thought.

“Attention, _Snart and friends_.” The voice echoed all around them. “I just wanted you all to know - you’ll never leave this building alive.”

Len grimaced, looking up for the source of the sound and spotting speakers embedded into the ceiling. He knew that voice, and the sound of it made him kick himself. For once, he had definitely fucked up. “Laura Garcia,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “How the fuck did you get out of those cuffs?”

He looked at Barry. “Come on. We’d better find that room and get your speed back before she gains control of any more systems.”

“Got it.” Barry was already poised to run, and the two of them hurried down the hallway. Len unrolled the blueprints in his own mind, following their progress from the elevators to the mysterious large space that had been mapped out in the centre of the building. In the blueprints, it had been labelled ‘mainframe’, but he knew now that they weren’t going to find a computer in there.

At the first junction, he thrust out his free hand to stop Barry from barrelling straight through. He paused and peeked out, then waved Barry past, hurrying to the next intersection. This time, Barry stopped on his own. He really was so satisfyingly attentive.

Three more intersections, and Len spotted the door up ahead. “Keep an eye out,” he growled as he pulled out his tools. This keypad was more advanced than the one downstairs and was beyond Barry’s skills at the moment, even if they had time for Len to supervise another practice session. That would have to wait. 

It surrendered quickly to his skills, though, and the door unlocked. With a fierce grin, Len pushed the door open. A strange, eldritch light played over the room beyond, and Len looked up at the massive sphere suspended in the centre of the room. It was even stranger and more impressive in real life than it had looked on the monitor. It was, he had no doubt, in the very centre of the facility itself. No matter which direction Barry approached from, and no matter where he was in the building, his powers would be inaccessible. 

Luckily this trap had been set for the hero, and it had never occurred to Laura that Barry would have other metahumans to call upon. Maybe there were even countermeasures against Firestorm in this building, but it wouldn’t matter. She couldn’t have counted on Len and the Rogues.

He had no doubt that Laura could guess where they were headed, but they had beaten her here. Now all he had to do was destroy—

The unmistakable shape of a gun muzzle pressed into his side. “Hello, _Leonard_ ,” Laura purred into his ear. “Put down your gun.”

She had been waiting inside the room.

Len cursed and glanced around. He hadn’t even noticed her in the room when he walked in. The lightning had dazzled his eyes, going from the red dimness of the hallway into this room with the strange patterns of light. More than that, he’d been arrogant. She had been waiting for him, while he had been congratulating himself on beating her there.

Thankfully, he didn’t see anyone else. No guards in the room, or places for them to hide. 

He also didn’t see Barry. Where was he?

“I said put down the gun!” Laura snapped, and he growled. He bent carefully and set the cold gun on the floor, then kicked it, sending it skittering back behind him somewhere.

She cursed, but didn’t make the mistake of diving for it, as he had hoped. He wasn’t sure where his weapon had ended up, but it wasn’t within range of either of them to pick up. 

He raised his hands, and she backed up a couple of steps - smart, since he had already overpowered her once before. She was out of arm’s reach now, and he glared at her in consternation.

“If I say sorry, will you refrain from shooting me?” he asked, trying to buy time. Where the hell was Barry? And what was he even thinking? He didn’t have a weapon anyway, so what did he think he was going to do?

If Barry did something stupid and got Len killed, he was _totally_ cancelling their date.

Laura sneered at him. “You and I could have been partners, Snart. I know your reputation. You don’t care about anything but profit, so why did you do this?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Len said with complete honesty. His mind raced. He had to do something. But if he lunged at her, would he be able to stop her before she fired the gun?

A tiny scrape of metal against concrete was his only warning that something was about to happen. “Duck, Len!” yelled Barry from behind him.

Len threw himself to the floor. He heard the report of a gunshot, loud and echoing in the chamber. Frigid wind blasted past him overhead, and Len heard the crackling of super-cooled metal as the beam of the cold gun froze the structure that held the sphere aloft, along with the sphere itself.

Metal split, and the sphere fell. There was another gunshot, and the sphere cracked down the middle like an egg with an even louder sound.

Len felt a rush, like wind, and warm arms close around him. He blinked, and he was standing upright and out in the hallway, reeling to catch his balance. An instant later, he heard a cry, and he ran to the doorway, to find Laura unconscious on the floor with the Flash standing over her, her gun in his hand. Barry ejected the magazine and it clattered to the floor.

He looked at Len. “You okay?”

Len nodded slowly. Neither gunshot had hit either of them. “You got your speed back.”

Barry grinned, and lightning flashed in his eyes. “I did. Let’s get everyone out of here.”

And then he - and Laura Garcia - were gone.

~ ~ ~

Len took the stairs. By the time he reached the lobby, there was a literal pile of guards in the centre of the parking lot, all of them divested of their weapons and tied up with zipties. In front of them was Laura, still unconscious with a growing goose egg on her forehead. There were several small fires around the grounds, and Firestorm floated above.

Barry was talking to Joe West, and the rest of the CCPD SWAT team were swarming over the place, gathering up the guards and employees and beginning to read them their rights.

There were also three ambulances, and Roy and Lisa were helping the former prisoners over to the EMTs.

Mick was standing to one side just outside the main doors, looking as uncomfortable amongst all of these government officials as Len felt. Len walked up to him. “Well, that’s over,” he said, glancing over at Barry. Barry caught him looking and gave him an encouraging smile, before turning back to his foster father and resuming their conversation. 

“Barely got to burn anything,” Mick rumbled, annoyed.

Len smiled wryly. “Next time, partner. You still have that briefcase?”

A few moments later, Len walked over to Detective West. Barry was just finishing up explaining all that had happened in what sounded like the broad strokes, and Joe was taking his statement as if he didn’t know the kid. Len held up the recording. “A confession from Laura Garcia,” he said. “You’ll find an incomplete particle accelerator in the basement that I’m certain breaks a dozen building codes as well as encroaching on other people’s property. If you need a hand with the computers to get the data about the experiments, I’m sure I could arrange something.”

“No,” Joe said with a cold snap in his voice. He took the recording device and looked at it doubtfully. “Thank you, Mr. Snart. We can handle it from here.”

“Good working with you,” Len said, though he only said it to piss Joe off.

It worked. Joe gritted his teeth. “We were _never_ working together.”

Len grinned and glanced back at his people. Lisa and Roy had finished up with the prisoners, and Mick was starting to look impatient. He gave them a wave to attract their attention, and as one the four Rogues headed for the gate. “See you around, Flash,” Len tossed over his shoulder.

“Uh yeah,” Barry said, his voice nervous. “See you, Len.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random Brooklyn 99 references make me happy. I think in another life, Barry Allen and Jake Peralta would have been good friends.


	15. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is some of Mick, er, _involved_ in the sex in this chapter. It's really not a pairing or a threesome thing, which is why I didn't include it as a Len/Barry/Mick threesome in the tags. It's really Len/Barry, while Mick is in the general vicinity. If that's really not your thing, then I apologize.

**_Six months later…_ **

Barry twisted the two wires together carefully, keeping an eye on the little screen above his hands. All the while, his mind kept count.

_Thirty-five, thirty-four, thirty-three._

Something clicked. The light changed to green. The safe’s door swung open on silent hinges.

“Yes!” Len clapped him on the back, and Barry jumped to his feet, grinning. “You did it, baby! Let’s get inside. We’ve got thirty more seconds before the shift change.”

Len moved through the door, cold gun at the ready. Barry followed, with Mick close behind. The door shut behind them, but didn’t lock. They were safe for now. The guards would never know they were in the safe unless they actually came and looked.

Inside was row after row of beautiful and rare jewellery pieces, each in their own separate niche on the wall. Laser light played over many of them, a security feature that would cause an alarm to go off if the object was moved. Others were sealed behind bullet-proof glass. Many, though, were just sitting right in the open on little cloth displays. Barry was sure that the object of the heist wouldn’t be one of the easy ones.

“Did you really just call me ‘baby’ because you didn’t want to call me ‘Barry’ in front of Mick?” Barry asked with bemusement.

Len cocked his head. “That I did.”

Then they both froze, and looked at Mick. 

Mick was gazing covetously at a brooch made of fire opals. He looked around, his dark eyes landing on Barry, then sliding over to Len. “I wasn’t listening. I definitely didn’t already know your name, Barry Allen.”

Len’s jaw dropped in shock, then he recovered. “Right. C’mere, Barry. We’ve got work to do.” He walked over to the prize of the collection, a massive blue diamond set in platinum, and accompanied by white diamonds and other gemstones. The entire necklace was probably heavy enough to kill a small animal if you dropped it. Barry couldn’t imagine who would want to wear it, or how much it might be worth.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Barry hissed, staring at the necklace - or rather, the security features he could already identify protecting it - with trepidation.

“I _know_ , but isn’t it fun?” Len purred gleefully. As Barry crouched down beside him, Len slipped his arm around his waist and tugged him close.

“If anyone does see me,” Barry moaned, looking down at himself. “My reputation as the Flash will be totally shot.” He was wearing his outfit, of course, complete with the cowl. Len had insisted, and also he hadn’t wanted his face to be seen. 

“That’s why if we get made, you’ll do as I _told_ you, and run,” Len said. His hand slid down to grab Barry’s ass, and Barry jumped, heat rising in his cheeks. “Now,” Len went on, going into lecture mode. “What do you see?”

Barry scrutinized the little nook that the jewellery was sitting in. “Lasers. Possibly a pressure sensor underneath. And there’s a fingerprint sensor on the handle of the glass front.” All the while Barry talked, Len was leaning closer. Then Len began to nibble on Barry’s jaw, and Barry’s breathing hitched. “E-even if you have the right code to unlock the cabinet, if— uh, if you don’t have the right fingerprints, an alarm will go off.”

“Good,” Len purred. His voice had dropped, deep into that seductive register he used right before pouncing Barry into the nearest flat surface. “Fuck… do you know how _sexy_ it is that you’re here?”

Barry had noticed this tendency in Len. Every time he taught him another technique - like that day Len had brought him a box full of locks and made him pick each and every one - the next thing Barry knew, Len was all over him.

It was, truth be told, the real reason he had let Len talk him into this. The fact was, he really _liked_ getting Len all hot and bothered like this.

Though he hadn’t expected Len to actually start coming on to him in the middle of a job.

“Yeah?” he breathed teasingly. “Do you like it when I talk about pressure sensors and…and lasers?” He winced. That hadn’t been nearly as sexy as it had sounded in his head.

Len chuckled softly. “I’d like it even more if you disabled that keypad for me. Same model as on the door just came through - you can handle it.”

Barry blushed and nodded. He took out his tools - Len had given him a kit for his birthday - and took off the cover, then began to sort through the wires. He resisted the urge to allow the speed force to overtake him, to make the task quicker - Len liked to watch what he was doing. Besides, if he went too fast, he might mess something up before Len had a chance to correct him--

“Wait!” 

\--Like he did just then. Len grabbed his wrist before Barry could have cut the yellow wire. “No kid, see the dummy switch? That’ll set off the alarm.” He pointed to the blue wire, pushing aside the nest of other colours so he could see the connection. “This is the one.”

“Right, right,” Barry said, blushing. He snipped the wire and then another, then twisted them together. Once again, the light changed to green.

“Good, now get out of the way.” 

Barry rose to his feet and backed off as Len raised his cold gun. He fired, and the entire display went dark. Len bunched up his fist and punched the glass, shattering it, and then picked up the necklace.

He held it up to the light, marvelling at it, then shoved it into his pocket and looked at Barry with a fiendish grin. “Now _that’s_ a score.”

“Couldn’t you have just frozen the whole thing?” Barry exclaimed. 

“ _Sure_ , but then I couldn’t have watched you take care of the keypad,” said Len, moving towards him.

Barry rolled his eyes, and opened his mouth to tell Len he was being ridiculous, but he didn’t get a chance. The next instant, Len’s mouth was on his, hot and eager. Barry groaned, his hands coming up, but there was no pushing Len away. The older man encouraged him with gentle insistence to sit on the floor, then wrapped his parka-clad arms around him and pressed Barry down onto his back, covering him with his body. In moments, Len’s fingers had unzipped the front of Barry’s suit, and were heading south.

Mick made a soft, sighing noise, and Barry squeaked against Len’s lips, suddenly remembering that he was there. He broke the kiss. “Uh— Len?”

“He doesn’t mind watching,” Len murmured, his breathing ragged as he tugged at Barry’s clothing. “You don’t mind watching, do you, partner?”

“Fuck, no,” Mick said.

“Maybe _I_ mind—” Barry began. His torso was bare, though his arms were still in the suit, and Len wasted no time, drawing Barry’s cock out of his jumpsuit and warming him up with a firm rhythmic stroking. It was hard to think when Len was doing that, particularly when he latched his teeth onto Barry’s right nipple in the next moment, pulling a gasp and a moan from Barry’s throat.

“You don’t mind, do you Barry?” Len purred against his chest, his wrist making a little _twist_ over Barry’s cock, and Barry made an inarticulate noise in response.

No, he didn’t actually mind. Much.

He tilted his head back against the cold floor, eyes squeezed shut and his heart racing. Len paused long enough to strip the suit completely off, until it was tangled around his ankles. Then Len was back, lips on Barry’s and tongue exploring as he pressed a finger into Barry’s body, and had he brought _lube_? His hand was slick with something, that was for sure, and Barry writhed helplessly on the floor, biting back a cry as Len rubbed a cold finger against his prostate.

“Keep quiet,” Len warned him softly, and Barry did the only thing he could - he brought a hand to his lips and bit down on the fabric of his glove, holding in the cries as the older man added a second finger, and a third.

He had completely lost track of where Mick was. One thing he had learned over the last few months was that Mick could be incredibly _quiet_ if he wanted to be. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was Len’s hot mouth on his skin, his fingers inside him, the mounting pleasure that made his body _shiver_ so hard that he blurred.

Len withdrew his fingers from Barry’s body and Barry _moaned_ at the loss. “It’s all right, kid,” Len murmured into his ear. “I’ll always take care of you. You know that.”

And then he was pushing into Barry’s body. 

The sex was quick and almost brutal. Barry’s body opened to Len’s cock easily, and he grabbed for Len’s shoulders, hanging onto him desperately as Len pounded into him. They moved together and apart, Barry’s back scraping against the floor each time Len drove deep into his body. 

Suddenly, Barry hit something solid. He gasped and writhed and felt that solid surface _move_. Oh shit, that was Mick’s boot.

“Oh god,” he gasped. “Len!” 

Two gloved fingers shoved into his mouth, tasting faintly of motor oil. He gagged at the flavour and Mick withdrew them at a snapped order from Len to “Stop that, Mick!”

“Just tryin’ to keep him quiet before we get fuckin’ made,” Mick growled. Rough hands slid under Barry’s shoulders and lifted him, and he arched his back again, crying out helplessly as the angle of Len’s thrusts changed. 

“The glove,” Barry gasped. He didn’t care that Mick’s hands were on him, that he was reclining more in Mick’s lap now, as Len knelt between his legs and thrust deep into his body. He didn’t care that Mick was there at all. He just wanted _more_.

Bare, scarred fingers pressed at his lips this time, and he eagerly opened his mouth to receive them. He licked his way between Mick’s forefinger and the middle one, swirling his tongue around them. Len gripped him by the hips, lifting him up another few inches, and he heard the older man groan as he finally hit his proper stride and rhythm.

With Barry braced against Mick’s chest, Len drove deep into him once, twice, three times, then stilled and gasped as his orgasm hit. Barry felt the warm rush of fluids into his body, and then felt Len’s fingers curl around his cock and stroke.

A single stroke of Len’s hand had Barry spilling over his fingers. He cried out again, the sound muffled by Mick’s hand and he was grateful for it.

The warmth supporting him slowly withdrew as Mick lowered him to the floor. Then, Len gathered him up and Barry felt a wet cloth smooth over his body. He opened his eyes, still panting, and looked up as Len meticulously cleaned them both up, careful to wipe away any traces that had spilled to the floor. “Get it all,” he growled at Mick, somewhere behind him. “I don’t want any DNA left behind. Use the bleach.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Mick growled.

Barry sat up, knowing better than to say anything. He couldn’t believe that had just happened - that Len had _planned_ for it to happen. He just quickly pulled his suit back on and zipped up, then leaned over to Len and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re amazing,” he said.

Len froze, then snorted and finished up cleaning a spot on the floor. In seconds, there wasn’t a single bit of evidence that anyone had just had sex in this room - or in Mick’s case, masturbated after watching the other two have sex. They were all fully clothed and ready to go, though Barry was still warm and pleasantly tingly.

“Let’s get out of here,” Len said, and Barry turned to him, frowning.

“Yeah, let’s go. But first, Len, we talked about this.”

Len hesitated, then sighed and pulled the necklace out of his pocket. He set it back on its frozen and shattered display.

“This _sucks_ ,” Mick grunted. 

“It’s the price of having me along,” Barry said sternly, shooting a glare at Mick. “You can have the thrill of breaking into the place, but no stealing.”

“That was the deal,” Len sighed, starting for the door, only to be stopped when Barry caught his arm.

“The _other_ one, Len.”

Len glanced at him sidelong, scowling, and then pulled the fire opal brooch out of his pocket, and set it back down on its display resentfully. “I take it _all_ back. You’re no fun, Flash.”

Barry just grinned. “Love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aand, it's done! Thanks so much for all your comments and kudos. I have really enjoyed writing this story and sharing it with you all. And particularly as it was the most involved gift fic I have ever done, thanks to @TheFightingBull for giving me the prompt that spawned it.


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